Painkillers discovered in Tesco’s ice cream

The UK police have undertaken an investigation into the possible deliberate contamination of Tesco ice cream with painkillers.

In November, two ice cream cone from suppliers Northallerton-based, R&R Ice Cream were each found to contain a single pain relief tablet. The retailer, recalled its own-brand chocolate and nut cones as a precautionary measure. According to the police, they were working alongside the supermarket chain, the manufacturer and the Food Standards Agency.

According to a statement by the North Yorkshire Police the two incidents had been "assessed as a low risk to public health".

According to R&R Ice Cream, it had introduced additional security measures at its North Yorkshire factory following the incident, including the installation of CCTV on the production lines. The company added that cone production had restarted just before Christmas.

A Tesco spokesman said, as a precautionary measure, the company issued a product recall on Tesco Chocolate and Nut Ice Cream Cones in November after two individual cones were found to contain tablets.

He added, the retailer was currently investigating the incident with its supplier and was helping the police with their inquiries.

According to a police spokesperson, malicious spiking was "one of the lines of inquiry" and gut instinct led him to suspect  deliberate contamination.

He said, it was a challenging investigation, because what the police needed to try to understand how and where and who was responsible for that contamination, and if it was deliberate contamination.

He added if it was felt to be accidental from the outset, the resources the company had put into it probably would not be to the scale it had done.

R&R one of the top ice-cream manufacturers and distributors in Europe, also produces other leading brands of ice cream including Fab lollies, Rowntree's Fruit Pastille lollies, Kelly's of Cornwall ice cream and Skinny Cow.

According to Peter Pickthall, R&R's human resources director, the tablets could not have been added by someone in the Tesco stores.

It was two separate parts of the country so that had focused the police on the fact that it could be a potentially malicious act, perhaps by someone in the factory, he said.

He added, from the company's point of view, if there was evidence of anything where there was potential for a consumer to be injured in any it needed to be investigated how it happened.