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LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - British health authorities said on Friday they were investigating whether meat contaminated with bird flu had reached shops, but stressed there was no threat to consumers.

The alarm was raised after the government concluded on Thursday that a bird flu outbreak at a giant turkey farm was probably caused not by wild birds but by contaminated shipments from Hungary, possibly of processed turkey meat.

"If it was found that (infected) meat had got into the food chain it would be illegal and we would take appropriate action," a Food Standards Agency spokeswoman said.

"I couldn't tell you what we would do. But we wouldn't want that meat there. At the moment we are not in the process of withdrawing any turkey products from supermarket shelves."

"If infected meat had got into the food chain it wouldn't be a safety risk to consumers."

Bernard Matthews, Europe's largest turkey producer which has has had 160,000 birds destroyed after an outbreak in Britain, has acknowledged shipping 38 tonnes of partially processed turkey meat from Hungary per week.

The firm suspended shipments from Hungary after the British government concluded on Thursday that the virus which caused the British outbreak was identical to one that caused an outbreak in Hungary in January.

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