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Jamie Oliver's restaurants have stopped taking supplies from a meat company at the heart of a Food Standards Agency investigation which provided also provide steaks to Wetherspoon's.

It emerged last night that the pub chain had pulled steak from its menu at 900 venues - but it hadn't been clear why.

Today the Food Standards Agency revealed supplier Russell Hume is being investigated for "serious" breach of food hygiene rules.

Its sites are being inspected and products recalled amid allegations it was in "serious non-compliance with food hygiene regulations".

In a statement on the FSA website it said it has 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".

Until yesterday the firm also supplied meat for Jamie Oliver's restaurants, but bosses today confirmed that they switched suppliers as soon as they had been notified of the problems.

A spokeswoman for Jamie Oliver confirmed that no meat had been recalled, and that bosses were confident in the quality of food it had been supplied before the FSA ruling.

(Image: Google Streetview)

She told Mirror Online: "As soon as we were notified by Russell Hume about issues, we switched suppliers.

"To ensure all our suppliers uphold our strict higher welfare and food safety standards, we have an independent team that audits all our key suppliers, including meat.

"Following an inspection at the end of last year and the fact we have full traceability on our meat, we can confirm that none of the meat we buy is impacted."

The FSA issued a statement on its website earlier today regarding its investigation of Russell Hume sites.

The statement said: "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.

“We have also instructed Russell Hume to undertake a withdrawal of all affected product in the supply chain.

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

“However, we are concerned about the poor practices in place at their premises so that is why we have taken proportionate action to ensure no meat can leave their sites at present. We are continuing to assess the situation.”

Wetherspoon's spokesman Eddie Gershon said: “We knew something was wrong on Monday and made a decision to drop steak from steak night but we did not know anything about the FSA investigation until now.”

Wetherspoon estimates it will take seven days to find a new supplier and put quality steak back on the menu.