A Tim Hortons branded chicken noodle soup base was recalled in Alberta and southwestern Ontario because it contained insects.

In an emailed statement, Tim Hortons said Thursday the recall does not impact canned soups sold in grocery stores, only the soup base that was made and sold to a few isolated restaurants. It said there were no reported illnesses.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said the recalled product was available to purchase in those provinces up to and including Oct. 20.

The agency said the soup base, which weighs 3.54 kilograms per unit, was sold to hotels, restaurants and institutions.

Tim Hortons said the incident only impacted a few isolated Tim Hortons restaurants, but the company proactively asked all restaurant owners that received product from the supplier in question to dispose of their product.

The company said the impacted batches were removed from restaurants, destroyed and replaced with new product from another supplier.

Chicken noodle soup base in other provinces, as well as canned Tim Hortons soup sold in grocery stores, are manufactured by another supplier and were therefore not affected, Tim Hortons said.

The recall involves products with best-before dates between March 13, 2023 and April 30, 2023.

The CFIA said not to use, sell, serve or distribute the product.

Tim Hortons said it is investigating the issue and believes relatively few guests were impacted, but added it will only restart production with the manufacturer once it's confident this problem will not happen again.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2022.