A shortage of sauces, soups and wraps on supermarket shelves was caused by a strike at a food manufacturing plant, a union has said.

Shoppers this week reported shortages of roe dredge and Unite said further shortages could be caused by industrial action at Bakkavor in Spalding, Lincolnshire.

District manager Sam Hennessy said that as a result of the strike, “there are serious shortages in many supermarkets up and down the country”.

A spokesperson for Bakkavor said there had been a “brief interruption in our taramasalata supply” and that production at other facilities would “increase” to meet consumer demand.

They added that soup supply had been affected “as an individual product category” but that “work is in place to resolve this very quickly”.

The company said that tarasalata production will be operational next week but is not affected by any other decline.

The company confirmed that around 400 staff, a third of Splading’s workforce, are currently on strike over a pay dispute.

Mr Hennessy said: “It is up to the employer to come to staff with a suitable salary offer that will be accepted” and added that Bakkavor’s position was “a simple case of corporate greed”.

But Donna-Marie Lee, Bakkavor’s chief people officer, said: “We have involved the union in discussions from the beginning and our CEO met with them recently with a real desire to resolve the issue.”

He said workers at the Spalding site had been offered a discretionary bonus of £350 per head and above-inflation pay rises but had been rejected by the union.

Mike Edwards, CEO of Bakkavor, said: “The union has the right to campaign but our responsibility as a business – to our colleagues, customers, shareholders and the communities in which we are a major employer – is to be sustainable and fair in the long term.”

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