Bernard Matthews, the founder of Britain's largest poultry firm, has today told consumers that his turkey products are safe to eat, despite the recent bird flu outbreak at one of his Suffolk farms.
Writing in the Daily Mirror the multi-millionaire apologised to customers for the affair but insisted it had "not been of our making".
Since the outbreak was discovered on February 3rd about 160,000 turkeys have been culled at the Holton plant near Lowestoft.
Government vets have since confirmed that the virus is the highly pathogenic avian influenza strain and is virtually identical to recent outbreaks at a Hungarian goose farm.
The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has so far found no evidence of a link between the two central European sites.
And Mr Matthews, whose company owns a turkey processing plant 30 miles west of the infected goose farm, has also strongly denied claims of a cover-up.
"I've been upset about allegations that we may have withheld information. That is completely untrue," the 77-year-old said.
"Let me be absolutely clear - it's my name on the packet and I wouldn't let any food go out to the shelves if I thought there was anything wrong with it."
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) last night ruled that Bernard Matthews products held in cold storage could enter the food chain after concluding that they contained no meat from restricted Hungarian zones.
Mr Matthews concluded: "The link to my business in Hungary is one that is being thoroughly investigated and we were originally told by the experts that the possibility of any link with Hungary had been dismissed."
Digg 
Delicious 
Reddit 
StumbleUpon 
Google 
Technorati 
Netvouz