News

A food poisoning alert has been issued over ready-made sandwiches sold through hospitals, schools, council sports centres and canteens.

As many as 220,000 produced between February 21 and March 14 are under suspicion. They were manufactured by Anchor Catering, based in Ashford in Kent, and distributed in Kent, Sussex, Essex, Surrey and Greater London.

Among the hospitals involved are Guy's and Great Ormond Street in London, plus others in Kent and Sussex.

In Kent, Canterbury Cathedral, Hever Castle, Leeds Castle and Dover Castle are listed as establishments which sold the sandwiches together with Kent County Council and the Saga Group.*(see list below)

The majority of the sandwiches were labelled as Anchor products. Others were sold under the Pomegranate name. The FSA has not identified the type of fillings involved.

The Food Standards Agency raised the alarm yesterday, after a very small number of samples tested positive for listeria during routine checks.

However, the suspect sandwiches have already been eaten because they were sold during a three-week period in February and March.

Listeria is known to be a risk for pregnant women, the elderly and sick, who tend to have a weaker immune system.

Symptoms of infection can take up to 90 days to appear after exposure and may start with a fever, flu-like illness and diarrhoea.

Anyone in the vulnerable groups who may be worried that they have been exposed and develops these symptoms should take advice from their GP or hospital consultant.

The illness can usually be effectively treated with antibiotics. The Health Protection Agency is not aware of any cases of infection but it has sent an alert to GPs in London and the South East, where the sandwiches were sold.

* A list of outlets which sold the sandwiches is available at www.food.gov.uk