UK withdraws olives on botulism fears

The UK has ordered the withdrawal of a batch of Italian olives after they were linked to two cases of botulism in Finland.

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) raised the alarm over Gaudiano Organic Olives Stuffed with Almonds after the botulism incidents in Helsinki.

Lab tests confirmed that the jar from which they had eaten the olives contained botulinum toxin. The tainted olives were in 314ml glass jars with a 'best before' date of 09/2012, said the FSA.

Some 40 jars of olives from the implicated batch were distributed to a single UK company - Greencity Wholefoods of Glasgow.

They were imported into the UK in September 2010 and sold on to a number of smaller retailers and caterers. None of the affected batch remains on sale.

No cases of botulism have been reported in the UK linked to this product, said the agency.