British police officers are urging the general public to be more conscientious about labelling food while transporting it, after a vegan cake mix was mistaken for drugs after being recovered in lost luggage at a UK airport.

This week, cleaners at London Gatwick airport stumbled upon an unattended suitcase packed with bags of unlabelled white powder on a shuttle train.

Disturbed by what they thought was presumably a large stash of cocaine, they phoned the police, who arrived on the scene immediately to investigate. According to the Brighton and Hove Independent, when the police seized the suspected illegal substances, they conducted a number of tests on them. After some investigation, the mysterious bags of powder turned out to be nothing more sinister than a vegan cake mix.

A police spokesperson told the Independent: "We received a report at 1.34pm. Cleaners found a bag contained many bags [of what appeared to be drugs] in the first-class compartment of a train. Obviously it was tested and found to be exactly what it says in the tweet. We spoke with the owner and there was no concerns."

The British Transport Police was able to laugh off the incident in a spirit of good humour and later tweeted: "Huge drugs bust at Gatwick airport. In collaboration with the Home Office, powders tested and discovered to be vegan cake ingredients. Please label your foods and bring samples of cakes next time you visit."

The cake mix turned out to belong to Purezza, a vegan restaurant in Brighton. Taking to its official Twitter account, the eatery wrote: "So, we had quite an eventful time transporting some of our ingredients today. Thanks for going easy on us guys. A slab of cake all round is in order when you're next in Brighton."

Guys, seriously: if you're transporting something that looks suspiciously like cocaine, don't just leave it lying around, or you'll end up with egg on your face!

British police officers are urging the general public to be more conscientious about labelling food while transporting it, after a vegan cake mix was mistaken for drugs after being recovered in lost luggage at a UK airport.

This week, cleaners at London Gatwick airport stumbled upon an unattended suitcase packed with bags of unlabelled white powder on a shuttle train.

Disturbed by what they thought was presumably a large stash of cocaine, they phoned the police, who arrived on the scene immediately to investigate. According to the Brighton and Hove Independent, when the police seized the suspected illegal substances, they conducted a number of tests on them. After some investigation, the mysterious bags of powder turned out to be nothing more sinister than a vegan cake mix.

A police spokesperson told the Independent: "We received a report at 1.34pm. Cleaners found a bag contained many bags [of what appeared to be drugs] in the first-class compartment of a train. Obviously it was tested and found to be exactly what it says in the tweet. We spoke with the owner and there was no concerns."

The British Transport Police was able to laugh off the incident in a spirit of good humour and later tweeted: "Huge drugs bust at Gatwick airport. In collaboration with the Home Office, powders tested and discovered to be vegan cake ingredients. Please label your foods and bring samples of cakes next time you visit."

The cake mix turned out to belong to Purezza, a vegan restaurant in Brighton. Taking to its official Twitter account, the eatery wrote: "So, we had quite an eventful time transporting some of our ingredients today. Thanks for going easy on us guys. A slab of cake all round is in order when you're next in Brighton."

Guys, seriously: if you're transporting something that looks suspiciously like cocaine, don't just leave it lying around, or you'll end up with egg on your face!