This is the East Yorkshire food factory at the centre of a salmonella scare that has seen chicken sandwiches, salads, wraps and ready meals pulled from the shelves or snatched from shoppers’ hands in many of Britain’s biggest supermarkets and food chains.
Pret, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Leon, M&S and Waitrose have stopped selling some some or all cooked poultry products because of the outbreak at the gigantic Cranswick food processing plant in Hull.
Cranswick, which bills itself as a producer of 160 tonnes a day of gourmet cooked chicken for sandwiches and meals, says the salmonella was detected during a ‘routine internal inspection’.
The products feared to be contaminated appear to have use by dates of May 11, 12 and 13, and tonnes of food have now been seized and binned. The Food Standards Agency has advised people with products in the fridge not to eat them.
It is not yet clear if anyone has been made ill by the bug, which kicks in between six hours to six days after infection. It causes diarrhoea, fever, and stomach cramps and in severe cases can cause hospitalisation. Around 50 people die each year in the UK.
A spokesman for Cranswick, which makes the majority of supermarket own brand sausages but fairly recently moved into chicken said: ‘As a precautionary measure, we have asked our customers to remove any of their products containing our ready to eat chicken produced during the affected period. We are working closely with the Foods Standards Agency and will collaborate with their experts to resolve the matter’, adding that its factory ‘will remain closed until the investigations are complete’.
The mass pulling of chicken products shows how exposed the UK food chain is to a handful of huge suppliers.
MailOnline has visited several supermarkets and food stores today where shelves usually piled high with chicken salads and sandwiches were bare or closed off. One Pret store in Kensington had removed all labels for its poultry products, with staff saying they were ‘all gone’.
A nearby M&S is continuing to sell chicken and sweetcorn and chicken and avocado sandwiches, but its chicken and bacon and chicken and salad ones have been pulled, leaving an empty shelf. Yesterday it emerged that one Sainsbury’s customer tried to buy some of the chicken but had it snatched from them by a woman at the till.
Waitrose last night became the latest supermarket giant recalling some of its chicken sandwich range due to a potential salmonella risk amid a growing High Street poultry crisis.
The move came as Pret A Manger removed all the chicken items on its menu, Aldi recalled its chicken and bacon Caesar wraps and Sainsburys took action on its cooked chicken offering.
Waitrose took the decision as a ‘precautionary measure’ and urged customers not to eat the sandwiches and wraps.
‘We’re recalling 10 of our Waitrose chicken sandwich and wrap lines — with Use By dates up to and including 14 May — due to a potential Salmonella risk,’ a spokesperson told MailOnline.
‘Customers should not consume these items and should return them to us for a full refund. We are very sorry for the inconvenience.’
Those being recalled include the Waitrose Roast Chicken Salad with Salad Cream Sandwich; Roast Chicken & Stuffing Sandwich; Essential Chicken Mayo Sandwich and Waitrose Chicken & Bacon Caesar Wrap.
The issue is thought to be due to an issue from a supplier.
Marks & Spencer is also now issuing a ‘precautionary recall’ of several chicken products due to the possibility a small number of them may contain salmonella.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said in a Tweet: ‘We are recalling the majority of Sainsbury’s and Taste the Difference chicken sandwiches, chicken wraps, chicken sandwich platters and some of our cooked chicken.’
It was described as a precautionary measure, with the supermarket chain adding: ‘Our supplier has alerted us that salmonella has been detected in some batches of cooked chicken.’
M&S said in a notice on their website: they were recalling 12 food products ‘given a small number of products may contain Salmonella.’
The items include the Coronation Chicken Deli Filler; 14 piece classic sandwich platter; Classic mini roll selection; Chicken & Bacon Caesar Wrap; Made Without Wheat Gluten Free Chicken & Bacon Sandwich and the Roast Chicken & Bacon Sandwich.
Pret also took the ‘precautionary measure’ to removed the chicken items ‘due to a potential food safety risk at a supplier’.
The chain previously advertised a Sriracha Chicken Salad Wrap for its new menu but the item does not currently appear on its website.
Previous staples including the Chicken Caesar baguette are also not available, with a notice saying ‘Oops, this product is currently not in our shops’.
A Pret A Manger spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘As a precautionary measure, we’ve temporarily removed the majority of chicken items on our menu due to a potential food safety risk at one of our suppliers.
‘We hope to have these products back in shops soon. We apologise for any inconvenience.’
Waitrose’s and Pret’s issues have been linked to Aldi, which had to recall its chicken and bacon Caesar wraps over salmonella fears and Sainsbury’s, where customers reports being ‘blocked’ from buying chicken.
Anyone with the Aldi items in their fridge is being advised not to eat them by the Food Standards Agency. They are instead being asked to return them to the nearest store for a full refund.
The Eat + Go chicken and bacon Caesar wrap and triple wrap are both affected. The items contaminated have use by dates of May 11 and May 12.
Meanwhile, Brits took to social media to report chicken being removed from Sainsbury’s branches.
