Australia's second largest brewer, Carlton & United Breweries, is being forced to recall up to 40,000 slabs of Carlton Dry glass beer bottles which have been distributed to major national retailers such as Coles, Woolworths, IGA and a host of pubs, because of the possible presence of small pieces of glass in the product.

The Food Standards Australia and New Zealand authority confirmed the recall was underway on Thursday for two large batches of the Carlton Dry product in 355ml glass bottles with screw top closures.

CUB is facing the recall of as many as 40,000 cases of Carlton Dry. Credit:Adam McLean

"The recall is due to the possible presence of glass in product," the Food Standards authority said in its notification.

The national recall applies to all of the major liquor retail chains operated by Coles including First Choice and Liquorland, and BWS and Dan Murphy's, along with hotels and bars around Australia.