Alert on glass pieces in sauce

A food company has asked its Irish customers to throw out jars of Chicken Tonight sauce because they could contain pieces of glass.

The company said yesterday that in Britain eight jars had been reported to contain glass fragments, and it wants Irish customers to check their Sizzle and Stir wet sauces and dispose of them.

Van Den Bergh Foods said the jars affected are the smaller of two in a dual pack. The warning in advertisements in today's newspapers was "purely a precautionary measure". The eight jars reported in Britain to contain glass were from a production run of 1.5 million.

"It appears there were a few teething problems while a production line was being set up to fill these new jars. In the interests of our consumers' safety we have decided to withdraw current stocks on sale," a statement said.

Customers can return the bar code from the wrapper together with their name and address to obtain a refund to: Chicken Tonight, Customer Service Department, Whitehall Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.

New stocks of Sizzle and Stir would be supplied only when they were entirely confident that any problem had been rectified, the company said.