Marine Harvest investigates UK salmon recall

LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Marine Harvest (MHG.OL), one of the world's leading seafood companies, is investigating what sparked a food recall in Britain after a consignment of fresh Scottish salmon appeared to be contaminated with diesel fuel.

Britain's top supermarket chains, including Tesco (TSCO.L), ASDA (WMT.N) and J Sainsbury (SBRY.L), have in the last few days all recalled salmon products originating from Marine Harvest.

Britain's food safety watchdog, the Food Standards Agency, said the salmon had an unpleasant taste.

The company said it believed diesel fuel was the source of the contamination.

"Most likely, there has been some pollution in one of the boats that has affected the fish," said Leif Frode Onarheim, acting chief executive of Oslo-based Marine Harvest.

"We have not found any fish in the plants that are affected, so this has to have happened on the way to the customer."

The FSA said it was very unlikely to pose a health risk.

"I am a bit uncertain as to how much fish has been withdrawn, but about one or two tonnes would be my guess. It is still unclear what the financial consequences will be for us," Onarheim said.

Sid Patten, chief executive of the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation, said it was an isolated incident within one company and only affected a very small percentage of the salmon products eaten in Britain.

About 1 million portions of fresh salmon are eaten in Britain every day, he said.

(Reporting by Nigel Hunt in London and Aasa Christine Stoltz in Oslo; editing by Chris Johnson)