Major retailers were quick to remove Sudan 1 products from online shopping baskets.
By last Monday Asda, Waitrose and Sainsbury had notices up on their consumer web sites offering more information on the crisis and affected items and by Tuesday Asda and Sainsbury appeared to have removed contaminated lines from the lists of products they were offering.
However, Tesco.com has carried no information. Indeed on Monday The Grocer was able to order a number of contaminated lines including Pot Noodle, Heinz Weight Watchers Beef Hotpot and Tesco Sticky BBQ marinade to be delivered on Tuesday evening.
No mention was made at any stage of the order that some or all of these products may not be available. It was left to the delivery driver to explain that these products could not be delivered due to a food scare.
On Wednesday, a member of staff at Tesco.com said the web site had not been updated and the offending products should have been taken off the site.
Ocado did not notify customers of the problem via its web site or email. However, many of the affected lines were signposted as out of stock.
The Grocer sought the views of consumers in the wake of the crisis. Simon Mowbray and Amy Balchin report.

Tesco shopper Bernie Verblow, 51, an IT support engineer, said: “I’m not worried. I had a quick look at the list but it didn’t contain the sort of things I buy. But it does make you think about processed food.”

Margaret Turner, 69, an Asda shopper, said: “I want to know why it took them so long to tell people about this. I have cleared half my larder. I used to buy a lot of ready meals but I will be careful from now on.”

Waitrose shopper Ray Bauger, 58, a garden centre worker, said: “I don’t buy ready meals, but even if I did this wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. This is just another scare like mad cow disease.”

Glenda Agar, a 44-year-old waitress and Tesco shopper, said she wasn’t worried about the scare, because she didn’t buy many processed foods. She added: “I always thought processed foods were full of rubbish.”

Keith Marriott, 58, a maintenance worker and Waitrose shopper, said: “I do worry what might be in other things that we haven’t been told about though. You don’t know what you’re eating these days.”

Lisa Musgrave, 29, a sales consultant and Asda shopper, said. “I don’t think the information has been put out enough. It should be in the supermarket as you walk in. I don’t buy many ready meals, if I do I will look at them.”