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An Egyptian member of parliament called on Ali Moselhi, the minister of supply and internal trade,Ìýon Tuesday to launch an immediate investigation into brands of imported chocolate available in the market thatÌýÌýcontain poppy.

In her motion addressed to parliament speaker Hanafi El-Gebali, MP Amal Abdel-Hamid said that the brands in question were being sold to adults and children alike, and alleged the poppy used may cause them to be addicted, local privately-owned daily Al-Masry Al-Youm on its news portal.

The outcry began onÌýMonday afterÌýa former president of Cairo University Gaber Nassar on his Facebook page thatÌýhe personally knew a number of people, whose jobs required them to take an unplanned drug test, had tested positive for opium, "even though they were not even smokers."

"These people hold sensitive positions….and they may lose their jobs because of this,"Ìýhe wrote.

"By coincidence, I discovered that in major markets…there are chocolate brands that include a considerable amount of poppy, which is legal in the US and in most European countries, but having them [in Egypt] is considered a crime,"ÌýNassar .

It should be noted that poppy seeds areÌýcommonly used in dessert and cooking, while a particularly variety of the poppy plant isÌýused to make opium. Eating poppy seeds commonly does induce false-positive results for opium during drug tests up to 60 hours after consumption.Ìý

Meanwhile, Al-Masry Al-Youm,Ìýciting an unnamed security source,Ìýalso reported on Monday that samples had been collectedÌýfor testing of the chocolate.Ìý Ìý

Nevertheless, a source inside the state-run "Addiction Treatment and Drug Abuse "Ìý³Ù´Ç±ô»å °®Âþµº, on condition of anonymityÌýfor security reasons thatÌý"out of about 140,000 addicts supported by our organisation, not one case of addiction based off this food has ever been witnessed."

In a screenshot taken of one of the chocolate brands that Nassar , it is written that the amount of poppy it contains is 2.3%,Ìýwhile alleging that this is highly addictive.ÌýÌýÌý

"This percentage is very unlikely to cause addiction unless the person consumes a specific version and a huge amount,"ÌýDr Mohamed Zohdy, a psychiatristÌýspecialised in treating drug addiction, told °®Âþµº. ÌýÌý