Tesco has apologised for the "upset" caused when someone dumped ripped open ham products in the kosher section of one of its stores.

A woman took to Twitter to alert the retail chain about what had happened at the Barkingside store, posting a picture of the offending items.

"So someone in my local Tesco saw fit to dump a load of ham in the kosher section. Some of it ripped open," she wrote.

"Reported to staff who said they would deal with it swiftly. Hoping they did, and the person responsible gets bad karma."

A spokesperson for the supermarket said the products were "immediately removed".

They said: "We’re sorry for any upset this has caused. We immediately removed these products from the kosher section.

"Although this appears to have been an accident in a busy store, it should not have happened and we will check the kosher section regularly to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”