(Adds Sainsbury's comment, paragraph 9)
By Kate Kelland and Mark Potter
LONDON, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Britain's major supermarkets cleared their shelves of all Irish pork products on Sunday because of concerns they may contain toxic dioxins.
The product withdrawal followed advice from Britain's Food Standards Agency, which warned consumers not to eat any Irish or Northern Irish pork products after tests revealed possible contamination with potentially cancer-causing dioxins.
"As a precautionary measure ... we will be immediately
withdrawing from sale any products that contain pork sourced
from the Irish Republic or Northern Ireland pending further
guidance," Asda, which is owned by U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart
"We can trace all our meat products back to the source they
come from and we're currently investigating the situation with
our suppliers across all our products." A spokesman for Britain's largest supermarket Tesco said it
had removed the relevant products from the shelves of its Irish
stores and was reviewing its supply chain. "Customer safety is our number one concern and if any more
action is required we will take it," the spokesman said. Other supermarket chains said they were unaffected. Waitrose said in a statement: "All Waitrose fresh pork is
100 percent British, sourced from farms in East Anglia and
southern England." J Sainsbury said it did not use any Irish pork in its fresh
pork, bacon or sausage ranges and added: "We do not believe it
is contained in any other food product. But we will investigate
further and if any product is found to contain Irish pork we
will take immediate action to remove it from sale." WM Morrison said its pork was "100 percent British" and
declined to comment further. The Irish government ordered on Saturday a recall of all
domestic pork products from shops, restaurants and food
processing plants because of contamination with dioxin -- which
in some forms and concentrations, and with long exposure, can
cause cancer and other health problems. Asda said any customers wishing to return products would be
given an alternative or a refund. Industry body the British Retail Consortium said retailers
were working closely with the FSA and "as instructed by them"
had withdrawn the "small proportion of fresh Irish pork products
they sell".