The German discount supermarket Lidl has temporarily withdrawn a brand of wine from its stores after high levels of sulphur dioxide were found in a batch of the product sold in Britain and other European countries.
Lidl has emphasised, however, that bottles from the batch of the Australian Creston Bay brand Cabernet Shiraz 2002 wine in question were not sold in Lidl's Irish stores.
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The label of the wine withdrawn
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The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) today advised consumers to check their wine stocks for bottles of the brand. It said tests in Germany indicated levels of sulphur dioxide at almost 17 times higher than the permitted level and that this level of the substance could trigger asthma attacks in sufferers.
However, a statement issued on behalf of Lidl Ireland GmbH described reports of the alleged health risk as "incorrect". It said the company was "deeply concerned" about such reports. It said that at no time was "wine from a batch of bottles allegedly containing abnormally high levels of sulphur dioxide on sale in Ireland".
Lidl added that despite the fact that the batch in question never posed a health risk and was never on sale in Ireland, it had temporarily removed the product from sale "as a matter of customer care".
It also offered "any concerned customers the opportunity to return the product to the store from which they purchased it".
Lidl said it will publish information notices in newspapers tomorrow "confirming the correct position".