Lasagnes taken off shelves in horse scandal

Yet more popular food products have been withdrawn from supermarket shelves over concerns relating to their contents.

As investigations continue into the horsemeat scandal here, Findus, Tesco, and Aldi have withdrawn frozen Italian meals which are all produced by a French company, Comigel.

Findus announced that it was withdrawing its beef lasagne product over a “labelling issue”.

“The supplier that produces Findus beef lasagne has informed us that they have a labelling issue and have asked us to withdraw the affected product,” said a statement from Findus.

It said the lasagne, which is sold in 320g, 360g, and 500g sizes, was its only affected product.

“We would like to reassure everybody that this is not a food safety issue.”

However, the company added that it was currently conducting a “full assessment of our supplier’s sourcing”.

In the wake of the Findus withdrawal, Tesco said it also needed to take action.

“Following the with-drawal of Findus beef lasagne, which is produced by Comigel, we have decided to withdraw our frozen Everyday Value spaghetti bolognese, which is produced at the same site, as a precautionary measure,” said a Tesco spokesman.

“There is no evidence that our product has been contaminated and the meat used in the Findus product is not used in our product. However, we have decided to withdraw the product pending the results of our own tests.”

Aldi said it was withdrawing its Today’s Special frozen beef lasagne and its Today’s Special frozen spaghetti bolognese “as a precautionary measure”.

“Comigel has flagged concerns that the products do not conform to specification,” said Aldi.

“They have been withdrawn immediately so that Aldi can conduct its own investigations into the factory concerned. These investigations are continuing.”

Meanwhile, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has confirmed it was acting on concerns about the meat trader at the centre of the horse DNA scandal here as early as October.

However, the authority said it could not reveal what this action involved because of the ongoing investigation by Department of Agriculture, assisted by the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Poland’s chief veterinary officer has asked for all samples of meat that were found to contain horse DNA to be retested in the presence of expert representatives of the Polish companies involved and the country’s own authorities, as its tests have so far shown only beef products were sent here and not horsemeat.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said he hoped the Garda investigation into how the horsemeat scandal arose would be short.