Sandwich spread with extra ingredient

Newbury man finds used plaster in tub of Tesco sandwich spread

A NEWBURY man said he recieved an unwanted surprise in a tub of sandwich spread bought from supermarket giant Tesco when he discovered a used plaster.

Mr John Black, 55, purchased two tubs of the retailer’s chicken and bacon sandwich spread.

On Monday morning, however, while making a sandwich before leaving for work, he discovered the soiled blue plaster buried in the middle of the tub.

In a rush Mr Black, of Speenhamland Court, made a sandwich from the other tub.

After eating the sandwich at lunchtime, he realised both tubs could be filled from the same larger vat.

Mr Black said: “It was pretty disgusting to be honest with you.

“I feel physically sick at the moment because I had a sandwich from the other tub I bought, before I realised both pots could have been filled from the same larger tub.

“Its unlikely that the plaster was just dropped into that tub of sandwich spread and that they all came from the same pot at the supplier.

“It could have had blood or anything on it meaning that all of those tubs of sandwich spread could be contaminated.”

Mr Black, who works in the paper manufacturing industry, was told by customer services to return the tub to the Northbrook Street store so that an investigation could take place.

Mr Black says he was unimpressed with the supermarket’s response, however, saying that more should be done to stop potentially affected tubs being consumed by other shoppers.

He said: “The girl in customer services just told me to take it back to the store and I’d hear back within two weeks.

“I really think they should pull all of the tubs from that batch off the shelf since there’s a possibilty they could all be contaminated.

“I just want to make people aware of the situation and hopefully stop anyone else eating spread from the same batch.

“I have certainly been put off buying that product again and after the response from customer service, I’m not sure if I’d go back to Tesco.”

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We set ourselves the highest standards for the quality of our products so were disappointed to hear about this incident.

“Our customer service team has apologised to Mr Black and asked him to return the product to the store so we can carry out an investigation.”