Ross Sheil, Staff ReporterA CRIMINAL investigation is now under way after a syringe was discovered in a carton of orange juice produced by Sunjuice Ltd, a United Kingdom subsidiary of Jamaica Producers Group Ltd. The carton was bought at a Sainsbury store in Bedford, England.
Police forensic analysis of the carton and the syringe revealed no presence of drugs or poison.
As a result, Sainsbury has recalled 120,000 cartons of orange juice bought from Sunjuice. Sunjuice Ltd. confirmed that on March 31 it was contacted by a customer, the Sainsbury's supermarket chain, following the discovery by one of their customers of an empty syringe in a Sunjuice product purchased at one of their premises in Bedford, England.
STOPPED ALL PRODUCTION
Sunjuice Ltd. said it immediately stopped all production and immediately suspended all deliveries from its juicing plant in Llantrisant, south Wales.
Sainsbury's said it believed it to be an isolated incident and no other products were affected. However, it withdrew stocks as a precaution with customers being asked to return one-litre cartons of own-brand pure orange juice with juicy bits.
South Wales police said it was working closely with the Food Standards Agency, Defra, Sains-bury's, Sunjuice Ltd. and Bed-fordshire police.
Charles Johnston, chairman of Jamaica Producers Group Ltd. told The Sunday Gleaner the situation was under control: "The police are investigating and we are helping them in every way we can. We are upset that this has happened and want to prevent this from occurring again."
"I want to stress that this is the first time any such thing has happened," he added. "But, drinks companies can be affected by such incidents from time to time."
DISTRESSED
A statement by Sunjuice Ltd. on Saturday said: "We want our customers and employees to know that we are taking this very seriously we are all concerned and distressed by this incident. We are very proud of our strict quality and production standards, and all of our staff and their families will find this very upsetting."
Sunjuice Ltd., which won the World Juice Innovation Award in 2002, and according to Mr. Johnston is the largest producer of freshly-squeezed orange juice in the U.K. The Llantrisant plant imports oranges from Jamaica and around the world for juicing, supplying all of the major U.K. supermarkets with pasteurised, freshly-squeezed and concentrated fruit juices. The plant supplies Sainsbury's supermarkets alone with 180,000 cartons per week.
