SOME Wetherspoon pubs are temporarily without draught John Smith's and Strongbow cider due to the carbon dioxide shortage.

It comes as food and drink companies put plans in place to minimise disruption for consumers.

A Wetherspoon spokesman said some pubs would be without John Smith's and Strongbow cider - but said that supplier Heineken had advised both would be available again in a couple of days.

He said: "Wetherspoon has the advantage that it sources its wide range of drinks from a number of suppliers, so has not been too badly affected.

"Heineken has been the company with the biggest issues and they have told us that all is getting back to normal."

Wetherspoons has two pubs in Taunton as well as outlets in Wellington, Minehead, Chard, Burnham-on-Sea and Bridgwater.

He added that he did not have "the individual breakdown" for each pub.

He added: "What I would say is that John Smiths, Strongbow and Strongbow Dark Fruits (on draft) have been hit and likely to be unavailable for a few days.

"Everything else is 100 per cent fine, so no worries about beer/drink running out."

Punch Taverns, which has around 1,300 pubs including The Orchard in West Huntspill, said it has had shortfalls of John Smith's and Amstel for almost a week, with Birra Moretti also now in short supply.

A spokesman said: "We are working closely with suppliers to ensure that alternative products are available and we continue to communicate with our publicans to minimise any disruption.

"We are hoping that product availability will be restored within the next few days."

A Heineken spokeswoman said: "We'd like to reassure beer drinkers that all our breweries are operating at full capacity, and we're working 24/7 to get beers to our customers as quickly as possible."

Ei, the UK's largest pub group which runs the Craft Union and Bermondsey Pub Company chains, said: "We are aware of the issue relating to a shortage in the supply of CO2 and are working with our suppliers to minimise any disruption to our customers and our publicans."

The Glasgow Science Centre (GSC) visitor attraction said it had been unable to get the dry ice it needed for its new show due to the European shortage of CO2.

Resident scientist Sam Langford said: "Here at GSC we use carbon dioxide in its solid form in our science shows to demonstrate a number of scientific phenomena, including sublimation, ocean acidification and the three states of matter.

"However, recently we've had some trouble obtaining dry ice from our suppliers due to a European shortage of CO2.

"Our plans for our brand new summer show have been put on hold.

"Whilst this is a small problem for GSC, dry ice and other forms of CO2 being in short supply is a major problem for a number of industries for whom it is an essential product."

Food wholesaler Booker said it was limiting sales of some lines to 10 cases per customer per day to prevent "sub-wholesaling".

The Tesco-owned retailer, which is used by bars, restaurants and traders, said the move was to preserve availability and satisfied the "vast majority of Booker customers".

Tesco said the CO2 shortage had not resulted in any availability issues on any product lines.

A spokeswoman for the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said CO2 supply issues remained and retailers and suppliers were working hard to ensure food availability was maintained.

The BRC said: "We are aware of specific pressures in some areas such as carbonated soft drinks, beer, British chicken and British pork but the majority of food products are unaffected and retailers do not anticipate food shortages.

"However, it is likely that the mix of products available may be affected."

The shortages are understood to have been caused by a longer than usual break in production of ammonia, one of the key sources of food grade CO2 in Europe - which is used to carbonate drinks and preserve some packed fresh foods.

Trade journal Gas World said the shortage had been described as the "worst supply situation to hit the European carbon dioxide (CO2) business in decades".