A red-faced Come Dine With Me researcher has been given a roasting after inadvertently sharing the email addresses of every potential Dundee contestant on the show.
Bosses at the Channel 4 show have apologised “profusely” after discovering the email to over 100 people who had expressed an interest to appear in the programme included private contact information.
The blunder allowed potential contestants for the home-cooking show to see the email addresses of everyone else who had applied.
The Dundee show will be filmed from March 18 to 22, with each contestant taking it in turn to host their ideal dinner party in a bid to win £1,000.
The researcher who sent out the mass email was letting the would-be chefs know it was their “last chance” to enter the contest on February 28 but, on realising the “administrative error”, the show issued another email apologising for the information leak.
Telling victims of the data protection breach, business affairs manager Paris Wright said: “I am writing further to the email of Christian Misuraca of the Come Dine With Me team dated February 28.
“That message was sent to individuals who had expressed interest in being contacted for the show, but incorrectly by way of a ‘cc’/‘to’. This was not intentional but rather due to an administrative error.
“I would like to apologise for any inconvenience this has caused and assure you that we take data protection very seriously here.”
The incident is now to be investigated by bosses at the ITV-produced show.
Mr Wright continued: “The researcher involved has not made this type of error previously and has apologised profusely. I hope that this as reassured you.”
The television cookery competition has been staged in Dundee twice before.
During its seventh series, Jimmy Fox served up thoroughly Scottish cuisine, sculpting his main course into a set of bagpipes with green beans threaded through carrots and haggis wrapped in steak.
In 2011, Jessica McLaren presented a completely different take on dinner when she dished up some showbiz “glitterette” – otherwise known as glittery peas.