Ready Meals Withdrawn Amid Meat 'Alert'

Frozen spaghetti bolognese and lasagne meals have been pulled from the shelves of two supermarket chains as fears over contaminated meat products spread.

Tesco and Aldi revealed they have withdrawn a range of ready meals produced by French food supplier Comigel as "a precautionary measure".

The move follows concern over contamination of products with horsemeat.

Tesco has pulled its frozen Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese, while Aldi withdrew two products called Today's Special Frozen Spaghetti Bolognese and Today's Special Frozen Beef Lasagne.

A Tesco spokesman said it took the step after Findus beef lasagne was removed from sale.

"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," the spokesman said.

"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."

Findus UK said it withdrew its 320g, 360g and 500g lasagne meals as a precautionary measure after a labelling issue with its supplier was uncovered. The company insisted it was not a food safety issue.

"Deserving consumers' trust is a key priority for us," said a Findus UK spokesman. "As part of that commitment, we have been constantly reviewing our supply chain."

Aldi has withdrawn two frozen products but would not confirm if the dishes may have been contaminated or mislabelled.

"Following an alert from our French supplier, Comigel, Aldi immediately withdrew its Today's Special Frozen Beef Lasagne and Today's Special Frozen Spaghetti Bolognese from stores as a precautionary measure," it said.

"Comigel has flagged concerns that the products do not conform to specification. They have been withdrawn immediately so that Aldi can conduct its own investigations into the factory concerned.

"These investigations are continuing. We will continue to maintain active scrutiny across our supply lines and will always put the quality of our products and safety of our customers first."

The latest development comes a day after Asda withdrew products supplied by a Northern Ireland company that was storing meat found to contain a high proportion of horse DNA.

Newry-based Freeza Meats had been storing the consignment of meat, which was labelled as beef, on behalf of a supplier in the Irish Republic - Co Monaghan-based meat trader McAdam Foods. Two tested samples were found to contain 80% horsemeat.

McAdam Foods has insisted it had no knowledge that any of its meat contained horse DNA. It claimed the contaminated produce originated in Poland.

The meat had not entered the food chain and was not destined for Asda stores.

Last month, Tesco and a number of other supermarkets removed certain brands of beef burgers from shelves after they were found to contain horsemeat.

Experts from Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) told the Commons Environment Committee they could not be sure if contaminated burgers were being sold for more than a year.

At least 10 million burgers were put into storage to be dumped following the debacle.