WALKERS Worcester sauce crisps yesterday became the latest product to be removed from supermarket shelves in the food scare, writes Richard Fletcher.

Walkers Snack Foods quietly announced on its website that these crisps contain traces of Sudan 1, the illegal dye that can cause cancer. However, the crisps have yet to be added to the government’s official list of contaminated products.

The company, Britain’s biggest crisp firm, asked supermarkets and shopkeepers this weekend to withdraw packets. Production of the crisps has been put on hold by Walkers, which is owned by PepsiCo, the international food giant.

Supermarkets are expecting the food crisis to grow as more food manufacturers realise they have been affected by a tainted shipment of chilli powder.

For more information on the Sudan 1 scare see www.food.gov.uk

The Food Standards Agency has published a list on its website of more than 350 products containing the affected powder including ready meals, pizzas, soups and sauces. It is the biggest single food recall in British history.

The final tally is expected to lead to dozens, possibly hundreds, more lines being removed from shelves. Industry observers believe it could take smaller manufacturers and restaurants weeks to trace the tainted food.

The contaminated batch of dye was bought by Premier Foods, a food manufacturer, to make Worcester sauce. The sauce was sold on to at least five large-scale food manufacturers and used in hundreds of product lines and millions of individual products.

In some cases the Worcester sauce passed through four companies before it ended up in the final food product, so it will be very difficult to trace.

“Some companies are not that good at chasing what has actually gone into the product,” admitted one food industry executive.

Wm Morrison, one of Britain’s biggest supermarket chains and the owner of Safeway, admitted this weekend that it had no idea whether any contaminated products remained on its shelves.

“Products are being added to the list. The minute we find any more they will come off,” a spokesman said.

Schwartz, which makes spices and cooking sauces, withdrew seven products including a chicken fajita mix, an onion gravy and smoky barbecue wedges.

All big food retail chains have been affected. Heinz has withdrawn several ready meals including three from its Weight Watchers range and some Pot Noodles, a Unilever product, are affected. Shoppers have been advised to check food in their homes against the official list.

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