Drug chiefs have urged the public to be vigilant after four brands of cough syrup sold by supermarkets including Tesco and Asda were recalled due to ‘contamination’.
The warning came as part of an alert sent out by the British drug safety watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
It stated brands of cough syrup made by Bells Healthcare were being recalled due to ‘foreign material’ being detected in some bottles.
No further detail on what the contamination is or if it poses any danger to people was included in the alert.
Affected products include over-the-counter medications sold by supermarkets Tesco Health Dry Cough Relief and Asda Strong Dry Tickly Cough.
The two others are Almus Dry Cough Relief and Bells Dual Action Dry Cough. All the products are sold as 200ml bottles.
Batches of the products were distributed between September 2022 and November last year meaning these could have been purchased by the public.
The MHRA said the recall was on a precautionary basis and was based on a single customer complaint and ‘investigation and analysis remains ongoing’.
It went to instruct pharmacists, health professionals and retailers to ‘immediately’ stop supplying the product to the public.
The regulator also warned the public that they should be ‘vigilant’ for any visible contamination and contact a health professional if they had any concerns.
All the affected products contain the active ingredient dextromethorphan hydrobromide a drug designed to suppresses the cough that comes with illnesses like a cold or the flu.
While it doesn’t treat the cause of the cough directly suppressing the cough can help people get to sleep and recover.
Full list of products and their expiry dates:
Tesco Health Dry Cough Relief 200ml
Batch number/expiry date:
235B1 01/09/2025
240C3 01/03/2026
242C1 01/07/2026
245C3 01/09/2026
Asda Strong Dry Tickly Cough 200ml
Batch number/expiry date:
236B1 01/12/2025
240C2 01/03/2026
243C1 01/08/2026
245C2 01/09/2026
246C1 01/11/2027
247D1 01/02/2027
248D1 01/04/2027
250D1 01/07/2027
Almus Dry Cough Relief
Batch number/expiry date:
249D1 01/06/2027
Bells Dual Action Dry Cough
Batch number/expiry date:
237C1 01/01/2026
238C1 01/01/2026
239C1 01/01/2026
242C2 01/07/2026
243C2 01/08/2026
