A man who claimed to be a Wetherspoons chef and bragged on Facebook about serving meat sausages to a vegan was telling porkies, the pub chain has said.

The post made in the ‘Don’t Tell Tim Spoonsposting’ Facebook group by a man claiming to be a chef at Durham’s Bishops Mill spoons said: “Accidentally gave a customer pork sausages when they ordered vegan. Didn’t have the heart to tell them.”

He then added: “My manager literally found it funny as f*ck.”

Read more: Cars stuck in mud, traffic jams and 'horrendous' toilets mar County Durham festival

But Wetherspoons has now said the man behind the post had “never” worked for them, and the post was a big porky.

The posts had sparked concern over food safety practices at the Durham spoons which was handed a five ‘very good’ food hygiene rating in September 2018, ranking it as good on hygiene food handling, cleanliness and management of food safety.

The bargain pub chain says it has investigated the incident and has reported to post, which was made in a private Facebook group with 49,000 members, to the social media platform.

To get more stories direct to your email basket go here 

A Wetherspoons spokesperson told the Echo: “We are aware of the post and have investigated.

“We have never had an employee of that name and the post is false.

“We immediately reported the post to Facebook and are pressing them to take it down.

“Allergen information is displayed on our customer information screens and also on the company website and app. All our employees complete allergen awareness training.

Read next:

Get more from The Northern Echo with a Premium Plus digital subscription from as little as only £1.50 a week. Click here

“There are defined processes which allow customer specific allergen or dietary requirements to be communicated from our front of house employees to our kitchen teams allowing our customers to order with confidence.

“We also have strict hygiene and cleaning routines in our kitchens as demonstrated by an average local authority rating of 4.98 out 5 for our pubs in the ‘Scores on the Doors’ food hygiene scheme.

“Any member of staff behaving in this manner would face immediate dismissal given the serious safety implications.”