LAST UPDATE | 41 mins ago

Signs on fridges in SuperValu Lucan alerting customers to the incident. The Journal The Journal

MANY CHILLED AND frozen food items were removed from sale at 13 SuperValu stores this morning after a cyber incident affected their refrigeration systems.

Musgrave, the group behind SuperValu, said the incident was limited to a specific model of refrigeration equipment.

“Our monitoring systems alerted us to the issue and we took immediate action,” a spokesperson said.

“As a precaution, chilled and frozen products in the affected stores have been removed from sale, and all other products remain available as normal.”

The company said customers could be confident that products still on sale had been stored at safe temperatures.

“Customer safety is our first priority,” the spokesperson said.

“Our investigation is ongoing. We are working closely with the suppliers of the affected refrigeration equipment and with cybersecurity specialists to resolve the issue and restore normal operations as quickly as possible.”

Some fish items were among the products affected at the SuperValu Lucan branch. The Journal The Journal

The statement did not identify the 13 stores or give a timeframe for restoring their refrigeration systems.

In Dublin, the SuperValu stores in Blanchardstown and Lucan are among those affected.

At the Lucan branch, many chilled products have been removed from shelves, but fridges are operational again and being restocked, with essentials like milk and butter readily available. 

The supply of milk available again at SuperValu Lucan before lunchtime. The Journal The Journal

In Waterford, a SuperValu store in the Kilbarry area was impacted. Staff in the store were told that the incident occurred overnight.

The incident comes amid refrigeration problems at supermarkets elsewhere in Europe.

Empty fridges at a SuperValu in Kilbarry. Eoghan Dalton / The Journal Eoghan Dalton / The Journal / The Journal

In Sweden, operators ICA and Coop said temperatures in fridges and freezers rose sharply overnight at a limited number of stores.

One affected store blamed a cyberattack, saying its refrigeration units had been set to 50C.

Last month, cyberattacks disrupted refrigeration systems at hundreds of supermarkets in France, forcing shops to discard chilled and frozen food.

It’s not yet known whether the incident affecting SuperValu was connected to those elsewhere in Europe.

In Belgium, it has emerged that 15 stores were today hit by a cyberattack that caused some of their fridges to soar in temperature. The stores are part of the Carrefour supermarket chain.

“It’s a cyberattack, there is no other reason,” Carrefour Belgium spokesman Mich Vergauwen said, noting the “impact is very limited”. He said 15 stores among 700 in total were affected but not every refrigerator was impacted.

Supermarket chains Colruyt and Intermarché also said they were hit by technical problems affecting fridges in five and around 15 stores respectively, without confirming if a cyberattack was suspected.

With reporting by Lauren Boland, Eoghan Dalton and AFP