It may be the Welshman’s caviar, but laverbread – excessively boiled seaweed, the green goop on the breakfast plate – is suspected in a Salmonella outbreak that has so far sickened 12.

As a precaution, a local company, Penclawdd Shellfish Processing Ltd, has voluntarily withdrawn its laverbread from sale.

The product is available at a number of high street retailers and Penclawdd is the only supplier of laverbread to Tesco.

PHW is recommending that anyone who has laverbread at home that may have been produced by Penclawdd throws it away and does not eat it.  Anyone who is unsure where their laverbread was produced should check with the retailer where it was purchased.

Dr Jörg Hoffmann, Consultant in Communicable Disease Control for Public Health Wales, said, “Laverbread is generally a safe product to eat, and it remains unclear whether it is indeed the source of this outbreak.  However, given that we cannot rule out laverbread at present, it is very important that, to avoid the risk of illness, anyone with this product at home does not eat it.”