Masterfoods has had to ask consumers to postpone their Dolmio day following complaints that a batch of Express Carbonara Pasta Sauce 150g pouches didn’t “smell or taste right”.
The grocery giant placed recall notices in all national Sunday newspapers last weekend, warning consumers ‘Do not eat products from the affected batch’. The Food Standards Agency and Sainsbury carried the same notice on their websites. The embarrassment comes as the company revealed new executions for the TV campaign supporting the Dolmio jarred sauces range.
A Masterfoods spokeswoman said no-one had reported any ill effects from the carbonara products. “We found a small batch of 2000 supplied to our Safeway and Sainsbury accounts had not gone through the full production process,” she explained. “We had to take steps to recall the products and the ‘Do not eat’ warning was a precautionary measure.”
Alan Clark, Budgens’ senior buyer for ambient cooking sauces, said the scare was unlikely to cause the brand major problems. “There may be a short-term hiccup but there’ll be little long term damage,” he said. “I think the industry gets more worried about this than the consumer. In a couple of weeks, they won’t remember.”