Chilled and frozen food has been withdrawn from 13 SuperValu stores because of a "cyber incident".

Supervalu's parent company, Musgrave, this morning (Monday, November 2) confirmed that the "incident is limited to a specific model of refrigeration".

The company has not released specific details of the produce which has been withdrawn because of the cyber incident or the location of the stores.

Musgrave said that its monitoring systems had alerted the company to the issue and that it took immediate action.

"Customer safety is our first priority, and customers can be confident that products on sale in our stores have been stored at safe temperatures," the parent company of Supervalu stated.

Supervalu stores

According to Musgrave an investigation "is ongoing" following the cyber incident which impacted the 13 Supervalu stores.

"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," Musgrave's added.

The cyber attack on Irish stores is just one of a series that have been reported across Europe today.

Supermarket groups in Sweden, Luxembourg and Sweden are also believed to have been targeted in what appears to be yet another cyber-attack on refrigeration systems.

Last month the French headquartered, Coopérative U, confirmed that it was one of a number of groups that had been targeted in a cyber-attack which had impacted the "cold production facilties" of some of its stores.

At the time its CEO,  Dominique Schelcher, had warned that "targeting equipment essential to the preservation of fresh products and to the food supply of the French people is of extreme gravity and is unprecedented".

Separately Ahold Delhaize, which owns the Albert Heijn supermarket group in the Netherlands, last month filed a formal complaint with the Dutch police after it "detected suspicious activity in its IT infrastructure".

Update

Musgrave confirmed on Monday afternoon (November 2) that the cyber incident which had affected refrigeration systems in 13 SuperValu stores "has been fully resolved, and all stores are now operating as normal".

"Replenishment of chilled and frozen ranges in the affected stores is well under way, and we are working to ensure customers can get everything they need as quickly as possible," it stated.