If you have recently purchased EROSKI’s ricotta sauce or have some in your kitchen cupboard, buyers are being urged check the batch number before adding it to your pasta. Spain’s food safety authorities have issued a warning over a batch of the 350g sauce after possible glass fragments were reported in the product. The alert applies to a specific batch imported from Italy, not every jar of ricotta sauce sold by EROSKI. Anyone who has bought the affected product should leave it uneaten and check the label carefully.

The Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) published the alert after receiving information from health authorities in Navarra. The warning was circulated through Spain’s food safety notification system so authorities in other regions could take the necessary action. 

Which EROSKI sauce is affected?

The alert identifies the product as follows:

• Product: Salsa Ricotta
• Brand: EROSKI
• Batch number: LA310CRI01
• Pack size: 350g
• Packaging: Glass jar
• Country of origin: Italy

The batch number is the key detail for shoppers. The warning does not cover every product in the range, so customers should compare the code on their jar with the one listed in the alert rather than assume all ricotta sauces are affected. Authorities have not publicly explained how glass fragments may have entered the sauce, nor have they confirmed how many jars are affected or whether anyone has been injured after consuming the product.

What should customers do with the sauce?

AESAN’s advice is clear: do not consume the affected batch. Glass fragments can cause cuts or other injuries if swallowed, and they may not be easy to spot in a sauce. A jar that looks intact does not establish that its contents are safe. According to reporting by EITB, EROSKI has said customers can return the affected product to any of its shops. Anyone who finds the batch in their cupboard should keep it separate from food they intend to eat and take it back to the retailer. 

The alert was issued through the Coordinated Rapid Information Exchange System, known as SCIRI. This allows food safety authorities to share information about potential risks and coordinate action across Spain’s autonomous communities. The notification enables regional authorities to check whether the affected batch has reached shops in their areas and ensure the necessary measures are taken. 

Not every sauce sold as ricotta is affected

Shoppers should also avoid confusing the affected EROSKI product with other sauces carrying a similar name. EITB reported that a separate ricotta sauce manufactured by IAN, SA, was not included in the alert. That product can be identified by its barcode, 8480010310078.  The warning concerns a particular product and batch, not ricotta sauce as a category. Customers should use the manufacturer, packaging details and batch information to identify the jar in question.

AESAN published its recall notice on October 22, with further reports appearing on October 23. The information available in the alert does not establish the precise source of the contamination, the number of affected units or whether the product was distributed nationwide. Anyone who has recently bought the sauce should check the label before using it. If the batch code matches LA310CRI01, do not eat the contents and return the jar to an EROSKI shop.

At least 13 people in Spain have fallen ill with salmonella after eating Spanish-produced eggs, with the batch, which was also sent to Portugal, now pulled from sale. However, shoppers still haven’t been told the brand, where it was sold or how many eggs were involved.

Which eggs are affected? 

At this stage, nobody outside the authorities can say. Spanish officials reported the outbreak to the RASFF (the EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) on Thursday October 8, confirming the eggs were produced in Spain and formed part of a batch also distributed in Portugal.

That batch has now been withdrawn from the market. However, the brand, the areas where the eggs were sold and the quantity withdrawn haven’t been made public, and nor has the condition of the 13 people who fell ill.

According to the notification, laboratory results dated Wednesday September 23 identified Salmonella Enteritidis (a strain closely linked to eggs and poultry) as part of a food surveillance programme. The EU network has classed the incident as ‘serious’, the highest of the four risk levels a notification can be given.

Why it isn’t on AESAN’s alerts page

Anyone heading to the website of AESAN (Spain’s food safety agency) for a list of affected eggs won’t find one, with the agency yet to give any further detail on the case. In fact, the outbreak doesn’t appear on its food alerts page at all. This usually happens when the agency considers a product no longer poses a risk to the public, because steps such as pulling the batch from sale are judged enough to prevent new cases.

However, that’s little comfort to anyone wondering if some of those eggs are already sitting in their cupboards at home, and until AESAN or the Portuguese authorities say more, there’s no way of checking.

Symptoms can start within six hours

Salmonellosis (the illness caused by salmonella) comes on suddenly, anywhere from six to 72 hours after eating contaminated food. It brings diarrhoea, stomach pain, nausea, repeated vomiting and fever, along with a miserable, wiped-out feeling. Most healthy people recover within a few days without complications. However, it can be serious, and even fatal, for older people and those with underlying health conditions.

AESAN’s standard advice in its food alerts is that anyone who develops these symptoms after eating a suspect product should go to their health centre.

Spain’s second egg-linked outbreak since August

It’s not the first time eggs have been in the spotlight this year. On Sunday August 9, 29 people fell ill in Eibar (Gipuzkoa) after eating tortillas at a single establishment, with nine taken to hospital. Health officials traced those eggs to a farm in Aragón and ordered them withdrawn from other premises.

Nothing reported so far links the two cases. Further afield, at least 306 people fell ill in Belgium in an outbreak traced to a single egg producer, with Portugal among the countries told they may have received those eggs.

Part of the problem is the bacteria itself. Laying hens can pick it up from feed, water or wild animals, carry it without showing any signs, and pass it to eggs either before the shell forms or through droppings as the egg is laid. Vaccination and tighter hygiene have cut outbreaks sharply across Europe, but crowded farms and how hardy the bacteria is mean cases still crop up. 

How to cut the risk at home

Until more details are released, the usual food safety advice is the best protection, whether or not your eggs came from the affected batch. Castilla y León’s health service advises against buying eggs that are unlabelled, dirty, cracked or missing a best-before date, and says they shouldn’t be washed, as moisture helps salmonella get inside the shell. 

It also recommends avoiding raw or undercooked egg, not cracking eggs on the rim of the bowl you’re beating them in and not separating yolks using the shell. Homemade mayonnaise should be eaten straight away rather than kept, while custards, cakes and sauces belong in the fridge and should be eaten within 24 hours.

So until AESAN releases a brand or batch number, those everyday habits are the only protection shoppers have.