Allied Bakeries issue press statement on tampering incidents involving bread produced at Orpington plant

The Food Standards Agency requests that any local authority that has received a complaint since March 2005, or receives a complaint regarding foreign body contamination of pre-packed sliced bread, forwards the details to the Incidents Branch using the incident notification form available in Annexe 4 of the Code of Practice.

Statement from Allied Bakeries regarding deliberate contamination at Orpington Bakery

Allied Bakeries has been investigating a small number of consumer complaints relating to a variety of foreign objects found in bread produced at its Orpington Bakery.

We take these reported incidents very seriously and have been, and continue to, work closely with the relevant authorities (the Food Standards Agency and Police) on this matter.

In recent weeks, we have received five complaints involving fragments of glass or sewing needles in Kingsmill sliced bread. The foreign bodies were clearly visible once the bread bag was opened and were not embedded in the bread. Therefore, in agreement with the FSA, we have decided to alert the public although the risk has been assessed as small. Together with the FSA, we urge consumers to be vigilant.

It is important to emphasize that the number of complaints represents a very small proportion of the total amount of loaves (2.5 million per week) produced by the bakery.

In conjunction with the police, we have significantly increased security at the Orpington site in order to minimise the risk of further tampering. We are taking all necessary steps at the bakery to minimise the risk of deliberate contamination and to ensure that the products are safe.

Allied Bakeries regrets any inconvenience to consumers and we continue to work very closely with the police and our employees on the investigation of these reported incidents.

ENDS

Press enquiries:
Tim Luckett 020 7973 4443

Customer enquiries:
01628 507320