Emergency summit to tackle CO2 crisis as shops and pubs face meat and drinks shortage

THE Government called an emergency “CO2 summit” today amid warnings that supermarkets will start to be hit by food shortages if supplies of the gas are not restored by the end of the week.

Whitehall officials, executives from regulators and food and drink industry chiefs were due to discuss how to stop supermarket shelves running short of items such as meat and fizzy drinks.

The Food Chain Emergency Liaison Group meeting comes as one of the biggest producers of the gas in Billingham, County Durham, restarts production. However, the meat industry, which uses the gas at abattoirs to stun animals and in packaging to keep products fresh, said it could be a fortnight before supplies are back to normal.

Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, said: “The problem is that when a plant gets delivery of CO2 it comes in liquid form and it takes several days to turn it into food grade gas. Then it has to be distributed and there is currently a lack of lorries to get it around the country.

“I know of quite a big supplier in a particular specialist area that will shut down its processing and packaging plant if it does not get gas supplies by the end of the week. One of its customers is a nationwide major retailer.”

A g ove r n m e n t s p o ke s m a n s a i d officials were in regular contact with the food and drink sector, CO2 suppliers and trade associations “to under- stand the impacts and timescales for restoration”.

As well as the meat industry, CO2 is also used in carbonated drinks. Asda has said it is limiting the amount of fizzy drinks people could buy online.

The industry has been hit by temporary closures of CO2 plants across northern Europe coinciding with a long spell of hot weather sending demand for fizzy drinks soaring.

Pubs group Wetherspoon said it would be business as usual ahead of England’s World Cup clash tomorrow evening after the CO2 shortage raised the risk of pubs being left with no beer. The group, which had been unable to serve some drinks on draft, said the situation was getting back to normal and should be resolved by tomorrow morning.