Picture_Sardines in Olive Oil

Two of the fish brand’s sardine products have been recalled by the brand due to a possible microbiological contamination risk

John West has announced a recall of some of its sardine lines due to fears over a possible microbiological contamination risk.

Two of the fish company’s sardine products – boneless sardines in sunflower oil and sardines in olive oil – have been recalled as a precautionary measure.

Shoppers have been advised by the Food Standards Agency to return the products to stores for a full refund. Point of sale notices will be displayed in all stores selling the products.

The batches affected carry the 109, 110, 111, 112 and 113 codes for both products, which have best before dates of December 2026.

“Our current findings suggest that the contamination occurred after the production process, and that this is an isolated incident,” said a John West spokeswoman. “We test cans from every single batch of every product we produce. This is a standard part of our quality control.

“As a responsible supplier we are undertaking thorough checks of all canned sardine products in our production and warehouses as a precaution. Since we started the recall, we have discovered no further problems.”

The brand highlighted that an “extremely small number of affected cans” had been affected, and that there were no signs of common contaminants.

Products have been recalled from Morrisons, Waitrose, Tesco, Ocado, Amazon, EH Booth, James Hall, Century Park, Co-op and James Wilson.

“We stress that the number of cans affected is extremely small and that this is purely a precautionary measure.”