Equipment

A food company has pinpointed the source of glass fragments found in packs that forced thousands of ready-meals to be pulled from supermarket shelves.

X-ray analysis at Rye Valley Foods in Fermanagh failed to pick out the fragments and around 20 customers complained, forcing Asda and Sainsbury’s to withdraw nearly 30 meal types.

These included Asda sweet and sour chicken, Birds Eye beef curry with rice, and Sainsbury’s Kids creamy chicken curry with rice.

Frank Hayes, a spokesman for the company, said it was in talks with its unnamed supplier and “would take whatever action was needed” if inspection needed changing.

He believed the contamination took place in the harvesting process but said it was an isolated event and no one had been hurt.

“We do use state-of-the-art inspection systems but even x-ray analysis failed to pick out the fragments,” said Hayes.