UK supermarkets recall cooked chicken in salmonella scare | Food & drink industry

More than 100 products containing cooked chicken – including sandwiches and wraps sold at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Aldi, the Co-op, Pret a Manger and Marks & Spencer – have been removed from sale after a salmonella scare at a major supplier.

Cranswick Country Foods said it had asked its customers to remove all their products containing its ready-to-eat chicken produced during a particular period after “a routine internal inspection” identified the presence of salmonella on a “limited number” of such products at its poultry processing plant in Hull.

Items from Tesco’s One Stop convenience store chain, as well as Starbucks, Costa and Amazon are also among those potentially contaminated. The sandwich-maker Greencore said it was “moving quickly to alternative sources of supply in order to minimise any potential shortfall of products that may be affected”.

Cranswick said in a statement that it was working with the Foods Standards Agency (FSA) to try to resolve the issue.

“We are conducting a thorough investigation into the possible cause of the contamination and the site will remain closed until the investigations are complete,” the company said.

“The safety and quality of every product produced by Cranswick is our number one priority and all necessary protocols will be followed and completed before we restart production.”

The FSA advised anyone who had bought one of the potentially affected products not to eat it and to return it to the shop where it was purchased for a full refund.

Retailers and cafes have issued lists of the affected items, including the use-by dates.

Sainsbury’s said the supermarket was “sorry for any inconvenience” caused after recalling the majority of its premium Taste the Difference chicken sandwiches, chicken wraps and chicken sandwich platters, and some of its cooked chicken.

Tesco said it was recalling a number of items including some chicken breast slices with a use-by date up to 20 May and fajita chicken breast mini-fillets with a use-by date up to 18 May.

Waitrose said it was recalling 10 chicken sandwich and wrap lines with use-by dates up to and including 14 May. Marks & Spencer is recalling 12 items including roast chicken sandwiches, chicken salads and a mini-roll selection.