Tesco pulls value spaghetti bolognese off shelves over horse meat fears

Tesco has withdrawn thousands of packets of its Everyday Value spaghetti bolognese amid concerns it could be contaminated with horse meat.

It followed an alert by a French supplier Comigel, which also sells meat products to frozen foods giant Findus.

Comigel is understood to have reported that some of its ingredients did “not conform” to the product specification.

Findus subsequently recalled its 320g, 360g, and 500g beef lasagne packs.

Tesco said there was no evidence to suggest its value bolognese was contaminated, but it had withdrawn the product as a “precautionary measure”.

A Tesco spokeswoman said: “Following the withdrawal 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.

“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.”

A Findus UK spokeswoman said: “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.”

“This issue concerns only the Beef Lasagne product. This is a product that Findus does not manufacture itself, but is sourced externally.

“We are working closely with retailers and the Food Standards Agency and Trading Standards authorities. We are also currently conducting a full re-assessment of our supplier’s sourcing.”

As the crisis deepened, four mid-priced lines of Asda own brand burgers - tens of thousands of units - were cleared from shelves after Polish-origin meat being stored by Northern Ireland supplier Freeza Meats was found to contain 80 per cent horse.

About 900kg of contaminated meat was found in a cold store.

Food Standard Agency officials investigated the Freeza Meats facilities after horse was found in its Irish factories.