It's not been a good week for Jamie's Italian - fresh from announcing yesterday that restaurants including Greenwich, Bluewater and Kingston would close, the chain has now been caught up in the widespread meat recall that led to Wetherspoons pulling steak off its menu at short notice.

Meat supplier Russell Hume was instructed to stop any products from leaving its sites after a surprise inspection by the Food Standards Agency on January 12 found instances of "serious non-compliance with food hygiene regulations".

Wetherspoon pulled the supplier's steak from its menus on Tuesday night, and said it only found out about the FSA's inspection and its findings on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Jamie Oliver said: "All Russell Hume meat was removed from restaurants as soon as we were notified on Monday. This was a day before the FSA asked for meat to be removed. We also switched suppliers.

"Following an inspection at the end of last year and the fact we have full traceability on our meat, we are confident that none of the meat we buy would have been impacted."

There is no indication that people have become ill from eating meat supplied by Russell Hume.

The FSA said in a statement: "Following an unannounced inspection of Russell Hume's Birmingham site on January 12, we became aware of instances of serious non-compliance with food hygiene regulations.

"Russell Hume were unable to demonstrate compliance with food hygiene rules at its locations, so we have stopped any product from leaving their sites until the business can provide assurances that they are complying with the relevant legislation, and that they are producing safe food.

In its only statement to date on the issue, Russell Hume said: "The product recall was a precautionary measure because of mislabelling.

"We have no reason to believe that the product was unsafe to eat."