UK Edition
Whitbread apologises for using pork in beef lasagne without updating menus
Restaurant chain Whitbread has apologised after it used pork in its beef lasagne recipe without updating all of its menus.
The operator, which owns Whitbread Inn restaurants as well as Brewer's Fayre and Table Table, only updated its online menus on Monday despite including the additional ingredient in September.
The mistake appeared on both Whitbread and Table Table menus online but not Brewer's Fayre.
A spokesman said all menus in its restaurants were updated to say "lasagne" to replace "beef lasagne" in September when it changed the ingredients.
She said the online menus had since been updated to reflect the change, and "sincerely apologised" to customers for any confusion.
However a whistleblower told the Sun that 13 Whitbread restaurants and 86 Table Table restaurants still offered "beef lasagne" on their menus despite the change of ingredients.
They said: "I looked at the ingredients and noticed it actually contains pork and beef.
"I queried it with management but they didn't care. Three months on and the menus still say beef lasagne, and waiters have not been told to warn customers."
Some religions, such as Islam and Judaism, forbid the eating of pork.
The Whitbread spokesman said: "We strongly refute the Sun's claim that we have added pork to our lasagne recipe at our restaurants without telling customers. We believe that the Sun is using an old menu which has not been in use in our restaurants for some time.
"We changed the menu from beef lasagne to a more authentic lasagne recipe that includes pork in September last year and, at that point, we updated the menus in all of our restaurants to reflect the change.
"As most people will be aware, a traditional Italian lasagne recipe would typically include a beef and pork ragu. We are confident, therefore, that our customers would have been presented with the correct menu when ordering their meal."
She added: "We mistakenly, and with no ill intent, missed updating the website/online menus for our Table Table and Whitbread Inns brands, but as soon as we were alerted to this we corrected them.
"This was a genuine mistake on our part and we sincerely apologise to customers if this resulted in any confusion when they were presented with the correct menu at the restaurant."