A salmonella scare is threatening to create a new hummus crisis after one of the UK’s leading suppliers of the chickpea-based dip was forced to extend a product recall.
Zorba Delicacies, which supplies hummus and similar dips to most of the UK’s main supermarkets, warned more products than previously feared could be contaminated with the bacteria, which cause fever, diarrhoea and abdominal cramps.
Last week, it issued a recall for some dips with use-by dates up to 7 November, but this was extended over the weekend to more product ranges and use-by-dates up to 17 November.
Zorba blamed the contamination on an ingredient supplied by an unnamed third party.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) warned consumers not to eat 80 product ranges supplied by Zorba to various supermarkets. “If you have bought any of the above products, do not eat them. Instead, return them to the store from where they were bought for a full refund,” the agency said.
Zorba, which employs 450 people in Ebbw Vale in south Wales, supplies hummus products to thousands of stores from retailers including Asda, Sainsbury’s, Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons, Iceland, Safeway and Spar. A Nando’s-branded hummus with a peri-peri drizzle made by Zorba and sold at Asda has also been recalled as a precaution.
Morrisons, which sells 16 different types of hummus from Zorba, passed on an apology. “Zorba Delicacies apologises for the inconvenience this may cause and assures customers to our continuing commitment to the highest standard of product quality and safety,” it said.
In a statement, Zorba said: “The first issue was identified in a limited volume of hummus during our testing procedure, and root cause analysis quickly pointed to the likely source as being an ingredient supplied by a third party.
“Further extensive testing of batches of the suspected ingredient resulted in a presumptive indication of the presence of salmonella in a sample. Further testing and results to confirm this initial finding are awaited, although the company took the precautionary step of recalling additional hummus items based on this presumptive result.
“In both instances, we immediately alerted the FSA, with whom we continue to work on this matter, and instructed customers to remove products from all outlets.”
The latest scare threatens to dwarf the 2017 hummus crisis, when there were shortages of the dip after Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer withdrew products because of a “production issue” that affected taste but was not a safety concern.
A survey in 2013 found Britain was the hummus capital of Europe, with 41% of people having pots in the fridge, almost twice as many as any other country. An estimated 12,000 tonnes of the dip are consumed in the UK each year.
The recall highlights how different supermarkets rely on single suppliers to make similar products.
