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Processed turkey products on sale in supermarkets up and down the UK are at the centre of attention today as concern grows about the possible spread of avian flu in Britain.

Alarm within the grocery industry was sparked by comments from Professor Sir David King, the government's chief scientist, who yesterday warned that a mass withdrawal of turkey products would be necessary.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is currently investigating whether or not the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread into the food chain.

If it establishes that a "food safety risk" exists it may choose to implement such a withdrawal, food safety analysts have warned, prompting losses for the grocery sector.

Deputy chief vet Fred Landeg said yesterday: "Our investigations have shown that one possible route of infection is poultry product imported from Hungary. It is important that this is investigated thoroughly, along with all the other possible routes."

The National Farmers Union (NFU) is calling on the government to consider imposing restrictions on poultry imports, according to the BBC.

But Bernard Matthews, which owns the Suffolk farm where the original bird flu outbreak resulted in the culling of 160,000 turkeys, sought to downplay the link with outbreaks in Hungary.

There is only a "remote possibility" that the outbreak came from imports from the central European country, the food processing firm insisted.

Supermarket Sainsbury admitted yesterday that it has already suffered a ten per cent fall in poultry sales in the last week, attributed to falling consumer confidence about the safety of poultry products.

This comes despite repeated insistence that properly cooked turkeys are safe to eat, regardless of whether they are infected with bird flu or not.

The FSA has echoed the views of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Health Protection Agency (HPA), who have said that the risk to human health remains "negligible".