SUPERMARKETS:A WALL of empty fridges where the pork products once lay greeted customers at the Merrion Road branch of Tesco in Dublin yesterday morning.
A lone member of the floor staff, wearing navy overalls and large, blue rubber gloves, had just finished moving the last packets of Galtee, Denny, Olhausen, Shaws, Ballyfree, Clonakilty and some Tesco products into green plastic crates on the floor as store manager Pat Stapleton looked on.
“This is affecting our meat section, our pre-pack, our deli, our hot-food. It’s shocking. It’s devastating really. And we’re waiting on word from head office about other lines of processed food that might have Irish pork in them. Maybe 400 to 500 lines will yet have to be taken off our shelves.”
He said word came though about 4pm on Saturday that all fresh and pre-packed pork, all ham and bacon joints, rashers, sausages, hot pork products and black and white pudding were to be removed from sale.
“It was a case of all hands on deck to get the product off the shop floor. I would hope they can flush this all through quite quickly and get safe product back on sale. It’s an awful time for this to happen when we’re already struggling to keep sales up.
“We are lucky in Tesco that we can satisfy our customer base to an extent as our Value and Finest ranges use pork from the EU.”
Over in the Rathmines branch of Dunnes Stores, a queue had formed at the customer service desk, mainly of people returning pork, sausages, bacon and ham. The store was giving refunds to anyone who had a receipt showing they had bought a pork product there since September. There was no need to show the product, just the receipt. The woman on the desk said it had been “mental busy”.
One man with his teenage daughter was returning Dunnes brand pork steak and Denny ham. “One packet of the steak is marinating at the moment for a stir-fry tonight so I couldn’t return it, but they refunded me anyway. I’m happy.”
Eileen Clarke, from Donnybrook, was looking at chicken fillets for her family’s dinner. “I just bought pork yesterday, lovely pork and now I’m told I have to throw it out. It’s dreadful. And my lot love to eat bacon and cabbage and a fry.”
At the Mary Street branch of Marks Spencer there was plenty of ham, gammon and bacon on sale – all from Denmark or Britain. The manager, who said she couldn’t give her name, said there was “only a small pork section” in the store.
