Burnham-On-Sea’s JD Wetherspoon pub The Reed’s Arms has been caught up in a nationwide meat recall this week that has seen steak taken off all its menus.
The chairman of JD Wetherspoon, Tim Martin, has apologised to customers after it was forced to remove meat from its menu, leaving customers without rump, sirloin or gammon steaks.
Steaks were pulled from all of the chain’s 900 pub kitchens and the pub firm has since ended a supply deal with Russell Hume Ltd after inspections of its Birmingham site revealed the business was “unable to demonstrate compliance with food hygiene rules.”
The items were first taken off the menu on Tuesday, January 23rd and the recall has also affected Jamie Oliver, Green King and Marston’s pubs.
Wetherspoon is now sourcing steaks from a range of new suppliers in Britain and Ireland and intends to put them back on the menu this coming Tuesday.
Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said: “Firstly we wish to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused to them.”
“However, our decision to stop serving steak from Tuesday (January 23rd), despite limited information from the supplier, was the correct one.”
“Steak is one of the most popular dishes on our menu, and we serve around 200,000 per week on average, about half of these on our extremely popular Tuesday Night Steak Club.”
“We have now sourced alternative suppliers and our pub staff are once again looking forward to serving the steak dishes from Tuesday January 30th onwards.”
“On Wednesday (January 24th) the FSA reported that they were thoroughly investigating Russell Hume Ltd, but also stressed that there was no indication that people had become ill from eating meat supplied by them. We will continue to monitor the situation.”
Russell Hume, which is based in Derby and has various sites around the country, had an unannounced visit from Food Standards Agency inspectors on 12th January.
The FSA said the company had “serious non-compliance with food hygiene regulations”. The watchdog said it had suspended distribution of all Russell Hume meat products until bosses could assure the agency it was “complying with the relevant legislation, and that they are producing safe food.”
The FSA has said there was no indication that anyone had become ill from eating Russell Hume meat.
In a statement after the steak recall, Russell Hume, which also supplies care homes and schools, said: “The product recall was a precautionary measure because of mislabelling.”
