Tesco’s apple and blackcurrant dilute has recently poisoned a young
1 and a half year old girl named Ella. After taking just a few sips of
the juice Ella fell sick and wouldn’t eat or drink for days, her parents
didn’t know what was wrong with her. Her mum Emma said, “I had
just given her a tiny bit of juice in her cup before I went to work, it
was mostly water! She was drinking the juice but kept spitting it
out.” Emma told us that her husband had text her during work to say
that he had given Ella some juice but she refused to take it. Emma
didn’t know what was wrong as Ella was usually a really good eater
and drank loads of water and juice. This all happened on the
Monday.
On the Tuesday her mum tried to give her some juice but
again she refused to take it or anything else she tried to give her. On
the Tuesday night Ella began being violently sick and this continued
through the night and right on through to Wednesday. Ella’s mum
said, “I was really worried about her, she was lethargic and she
couldn’t sit up, she was so lifeless.” Little Ella became even more sick
and started to have diarrhoea. Her mum went to the pharmacy and
she was prescribed with Dioralyte but Ella wouldn’t even take the
medication. Emma told us she was wracking her brain thinking about
what Ella had eaten and what could have made her so sick. Emma
logged on to facebook later that night to get the shock of her life. It
was Tesco’s apple and blackcurrant juice which had made poor little
Ella so sick. Emma then realised why Ella wouldn’t drink anymore of
the juice and kept spitting it out. Emma then went over to check her
bottle of juice and Emma said, “I smelt the juice and it smelled liked
sewage, my husband or I hadn’t smelt it because we only gave her a
tiny bit of juice in her cup but it was disgusting!” Ella struggled to eat
or drink anything all last week, even after the sickness had gone.
Ella’s parents warn all mums and dads to check the juice before they
give it to their children.
A tesco spokeswoman told the Lennox herald that she had
apologised to Emma and her family about the juice that had made
Ella so sick. The tesco
spokeswoman said that
they did not know about
the juice but investigated
the situation and found
that all the normal
ingredients were added. A
flavour additive was added to the juice which is not part of the
ingredients but it was added in error. It is an approved additive and
poses no food safety risk.
The spokeswoman said, “I smelt the juice and it did have a very
strong odour, quite similar to garlic, which most costumers would
find unpleasant but I would like to tell everyone that we have
withdrawn the product from sale and we apologise to everyone who
has bought the juice, especially Ella and her family!”
Tesco would like to inform everyone who bought the juice that only
the products bought from the New Year may be affected and that
they should be dated until October 2015.
Anyone who has bought the juice can return it to any of the Tesco
stores and receive a full refund.
This problem is not going to help Tesco in the slightest; people are
not going to want to buy anything from Tesco. First it was the horse
meat which put loads of people off from buying food in Tesco and
now their poisonous apple and blackcurrant juice. Tesco customers
aren’t going to be pleased when they hear about this.
Parents do not want to buy food or drinks which put their
children in danger or even themselves. Parents have been
complaining about his on Facebook and other social networks some
of them even getting really aggressive over the situation. Claire Davis
posted on the Play Pennies parenting blog: “I had this the other day,
the smell was horrendous but drank it anyway as I thought they just
changed it. Since then both my daughter and partner have had bad
bellies. I was a bit worried now as nobody knows what was wrong
with them.” Another poster said: “I bought 2 bottles of this juice over
a week to a fortnight ago and when we opened the first bottle it
smelt absolutely disgusting, the second bottle was just as bad. The
only way to describe the smell was that it smelt like it had been
mixed with used toilet water, needless to say it was poured down
the sink and it is the last time I will ever buy anything out of this
shop!!”
Tesco only confirmed that the product had been recalled in
response to questions on Twitter. Another concerned parent said:
“Terrible response from Tesco - they must know hundreds (possibly
thousands) of children have been possibly affected yet they are
doing their best to keep this quiet and hidden.” I’m sure Tesco wasn’t
very pleased with all the angry mums and dads on Twitter, Facebook
etc.
Tesco is also having big problems with money and financial
issues. They have confirmed that 4 stores in Scotland, with more
than 300 people are losing their jobs. Tesco Chief Executive Dave
Lewis said: “It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that stores
in Edinburgh, Kirkcaldy, Grangemouth and Troon are included in the
43 we plan to close. The decision to close these stores has been
exceptionally difficult to take. I recognise it will affect many hard
working colleagues, our
customers and the
communities in which
these
stores
are
situated.” More than
2,000 dedicated staff
members will lose their
jobs when the shut
down the 43 stores they are planning to close. It has warned about
falling profits after being hit hard by competition from internet
retailers and cut-price stores such as Aldi and Lidl, which have been
steadily grabbing market share from the traditional big players
including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda.
In the future more Tesco stores could be shutting down worldwide
and thousands of people will lose their jobs, which is very bad thing
at this moment in time, with the recession hitting people’s pockets.
It is hard enough to find a job at the minute and now more people
will be searching for jobs to keep feed their families, home, pay the
bills and make sure your children are happy and not missing out on
meals etc. We hope most Tesco stores stay open in the future and
they encourage people to come back and shop in their stores and get
their reputation back again!!
Interview
A few days ago I caught up with Ella’s mum, Emma. The child’s mum
thought something was wrong when the 18 month year old was
hesitant to take a drink of the juice. After Ella took a few sips, she
was sick.
Interviewer: When did you give Ella the juice?
Emma: I would try to give Ella the juice before I went to work in the
morning, I would give her very little juice and it was mostly water.
She was drinking it but kept spitting it out. My husband texted me at
work saying that he tried to give Ella some but she refused it. That
was on Monday night.
Interviewer: Would Ella usually drink a lot?
Emma: Ella is usually a very good eater and takes loads of fluids, it
wasn’t her character.
Interviewer : How did you know Ella was unwell?
Emma: I tried to give her the Apple and Blackcurrant juice again on
the Tuesday night but she refused, she wouldn’t take it all. Ella was
refusing anything that I was giving her, she wasn’t her normal self.
Then on Tuesday night, Ella had been really sick all night and then
sick on Wednesday. I was really worried, she wouldn’t sit up and
then she had diarrhoea.
Interviewer: Did you give her any medicine?
Emma: I went to the pharmacy and they prescribed her Dioralyte.
Ella wouldn’t take it, I couldn’t stop thinking about what she had
eaten, it never occurred to me about the juice.
Interviewer: How did you know it was the juice that was making Ella
unwell?
Emma: I logged onto Facebook , I am on a mum’s forum and it had
come up saying that there had been a warning for the apple and
blackcurrant juice. It said there were foreign bodies in it and was
making people sick. I smelt the bottle of juice and it smelt like
sewage. My husband or I hadn’t noticed when we were giving the
juice to Ella because we were giving her so little. The smell was
disgusting.
Emma told us how Ella struggled to eat or drink all last week and she
warned all mums and dads to be careful.
HORSEMEAT
SCANDAL
Tesco hasn’t got the best reputation for meat because in 2013, meat
dishes had traces of horse in it. Tesco blames the horsemeat scandal
for the fall of profit. Tesco admitted that only four out of 1,850 had
traces of horses DNA in it. The Tesco burger, Burger King and Aldi
burgers all had traces of horse in them and they all came from a
company in Ireland. The company (ABP) is owned by Larry Goodman
from Dundalk. Goodman is known for his hard work, love for private
jets, high-level connections
in the Irish government and
keeping his business affairs
secret. His business employs
2,500 in Ireland and 8,000 in
Britain. About 50 million
Europeans buy products
from ABP each week. This
isn’t the first time Goodman has been in controversy, in the 1990’s,
Goodman brought down the Irish government because of fraud.
Where did the horsemeat in burgers made by ABP come from? We
have discovered that the company bought some of its meat from a
Dutch businessman called Willy Selten. Selten ran a meat cutting
plant in the town of Oss, south of Rotterdam. In May, he was
arrested by the Dutch authorities on suspicion of fraud and false
accounting, when official tests on boxes labelled as beef taken from
his factory found horse DNA in 21% of them. Polish workers claim
that they were cutting up and mixing horsemeat, delivered from
slaughters in the UK and Germany, with defrosted meat that was
years old, it was so old it was sometimes ‘green’. The workers had to
tie towels around their faces to stop themselves from being sick.
They say that the re-labelling of the horsemeat has been going on for
up to 5 years.
Selten, who supplies numerous outlets around Europe, has
denied fraud and false accounting. He says that horse had been
mixed with beef to order for only 10 months, and claimed that there
was old meat being cleaned up and mixed with horsemeat. He
intended it for pet food. Tesco, Burger King, Aldi and the Co-op have
all apologised to customers and said the authorities have confirmed
there was no food safety issue raised. An ABP spokesperson said it
had not engaged in any illegal activity. "We have made it clear we
have never knowingly bought horsemeat … if it was deliberately
introduced into the food chain, then we are among those who have
suffered as a result of such activity."
These products have been taken off the Tesco
shelves:
Everyday value frozen burgers
Frozen quarter pounders
Tesco Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese frozen
Flamehouse Frozen Chargrilled Quarter Pounders
Tesco Simply Roast Meatloaf
Products taken off the Aldi shelves:
Frozen Oakhurst 100% beef quarter pounders
Frozen specially selected Aberdeen Angus quarter pounders
Frozen Oakhurst beef burgers
Today's special frozen beef lasagne
Today's special frozen spaghetti Bolognese
Oakhurst Frozen Meatloaf
Products taken off the Co-op shelves:
Four beef quarter pounders
Eight beef frozen burgers with onions
Findus beef lasagne
BY Orlaith and Tara