Acting on intelligence received from the Food Standards Agency (FSA), Horsham District Council is warning residents and local food businesses, including convenience stores, chicken shops and takeaways, about poultry products that may be unsafe to eat.
The warning relates to products supplied by Alpha Food Distributions Ltd, based in Dudley. The company is not approved to cut or produce chicken products and has not met the necessary food hygiene and food safety requirements. As a result, all poultry products supplied by the business may be unsafe and should be withdrawn from sale immediately.
The affected products have also been fraudulently labelled with the oval identification mark "GB 4514", which belongs to a separate approved business that is not connected to this alert.
Members of the public and food businesses who believe they may have purchased products supplied by Alpha Food Distributions Ltd, either in plastic modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) or plain white boxes, are advised not to consume, sell or distribute the chicken.
Horsham District Council Cabinet Member for Environment, Recycling and Waste, Councillor David Skipp, said: "Protecting public health is our highest priority, and we take any potential food safety risk extremely seriously.
We are working closely with the Food Standards Agency and local businesses to identify and remove any affected products from the supply chain as quickly as possible.
"Our Environmental Health team will be contacting premises that may have received or sold these products to ensure they are withdrawn, recalled where necessary and disposed of safely.
“We urge anyone who suspects they may have purchased these products not to consume them and to contact the Council immediately."
Anyone with concerns or information relating to these products should contact Horsham District Council's Environmental Health & Licensing team by email at ehl@horsham.gov.uk or by telephone on 01403 215641.