Sunjuice Limited of Llantrisant in South Wales is at the centre of a police investigation into a syringe was found in a carton of orange juice.

Sainsbury's recalled all one-litre cartons of its home-brand Pure Orange Juice with "juicy bits" on Thursday after the customer found the syringe in a carton bought from their store in Fairfield Park, Bedford, and informed the supermarket chain.

Sunjuice, which supplies around 180,000 cartons of the orange juice to Sainsbury's a week, said in a statement: "Sunjuice Limited can confirm that on March 31, 2005 we were contacted by one of our customers, Sainsbury's, following the discovery by one of their customers of an empty syringe in a product supplied to them by us.

"The syringe has been since tested by police and found to contain no poisons or drugs - all tests were negative.

"We understand that the syringe was found in a carton of juice purchased at a branch of Sainsbury's in Bedfordshire.

"As soon as we became aware of the situation, we immediately traced the batch number of the product in question and established exactly where and when it was packed. This information was quickly passed to Sainsbury's, and to the police who have mounted a criminal investigation.

"Sunjuice immediately stopped all production and immediately suspended all deliveries from that factory.

"Sainsbury's is now under way with a consumer recall of this product with use by dates of up to and including 14th May, 2005 as a precautionary measure. We support their decision and are working closely with them.

"We have notified our customers and employees of the situation, and will keep them up to date as soon as we have more information to give them.

"South Wales Police and Bedfordshire Police are now investigating the circumstances around this extremely rare but serious incident, and we are doing everything we can to help them with their enquiries.

"Because it is under police investigation, we do not think it would be wise to speculate on the cause. Sunjuice will therefore not be making any further statements or giving media interviews on the subject at this time.

"We want our customers and employees to know that we are taking this very seriously - we are all concerned and distressed by this incident. We are very proud of our strict quality and production standards, and all of our staff and their families will find this very upsetting.

"The health and safety of employees and customers is our primary concern and we would like to assure people that everything possible is being done to resolve this as soon as possible.

"An incident management team has been set up and is continuing to work closely with the police, with DEFRA, the FSA and Sainsbury's to tackle the problem and investigate the cause."

Tests have been carried out on the syringe, said Sainsbury’s and have shown it was "clean". A spokeswoman for the retail chain added: "We do believe at the moment that because it was traced to one particular batch, produced on March 16, that this was an isolated incident.

"As a precautionary measure we have withdrawn the product from shelves with immediate effect and issued a product recall.

"We are working with our supplier to ascertain how and why this happened."

The recall affects all cartons of the juice with use-by dates up to and including May 14. Customers will be given a full refund.

No other orange juice range sold at the store is affected.

Topics