Criticism of Tesco firms, including Tesco and Asda, said they shared shoppers' "anger and outrage". Whitbread vowed to remedy the unacceptable situation on 26 February . The Food Standards Agency's (FSA) chief executive, Catherine Brown also said "it is unlikely we will ever know" how many unwittingly ate horse meat. On 22 May 2007 the BBC's "Whistleblower" programme showed undercover footage detailing breaches of food hygiene rules in a branch of Tesco. The Whistleblower reporter applied for a job following a tip-off from a former employee. Breaches included the sale of products after their sell-by date; allegations that the company illegally and sold
Criticism of Tesco but Tesco backed down. Tesco has been subject to several claims of apparently out-of-date food being 'back-labelled' to appear still to be within date, poor café hygiene and a staff member contracting legionnaires' disease in the Wrexham store. Tesco denied squeezing its suppliers in December 2013 after retail analyst Cantor Fitzgerald accused Tesco of practices that risked breaching the Groceries Supply Code of Practice and criticized its trading relationships. Similar accusation were also made in April 2005 despite its record £2 billion profit. In May 2004, Tesco announced it was reducing sick pay in an attempt to reduce levels of