Another meat scandal

MrsStepford

Haven't seen a post on the latest meat scandal so thought I would mention it. Posting from my Kindle and can't figure out how to add links, sorry.

Meat processors have been caught out:

Mislabelling South American meat as British
Defrosting meat literally on the factory floor
Mixing rotten meat in with fresh
Selling this rotten meat to wholesalers who supply hospitals, schools and prisons

Some of the practices have been going on for twenty years. I'm astonished that the Govt inspectors haven't spotted this before now.

Are you concerned ? Will you be emailing your MP ? Is safe food an electoral issue for you ? Will you switch to organic or buy your meat from farms ? Or even go vegan ?

 What do you think about people who knowingly sell on bad meat, for school and hospital meals ?

Years ago, I wouldn't have been able to avoid this kind of stuff, we had to buy the cheapest meat. Now, I buy organic, mostly from farms. 

It was predicted pre-Brexit, that when the EU citizen vets went home and our food standards were lowered, this is exactly the kind of thing which would happen. 

If I couldn't afford organic, I would be buying Red Tractor and avoiding anything which merely said 'packed in the UK '. I would looking to buy processed meats from the EU only e.g. from Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland. I

What will you do ? 

dealyboy

Farmers Weekly 31st March 2023 article ...
https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/exclusive-mass-food-fraud-and-safety-scandal-engulfs-sector

(Mail Online https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11918069/UK-firm-accused-passing-huge-quantities-potentially-unsafe-foreign-meat-British.html)

PLRFD

Just heard about this on the radio pretty shocking.

sarah1972

MrsStepford said:

Are you concerned ? Will you be emailing your MP ? Is safe food an electoral issue for you ? Will you switch to organic or buy your meat from farms ? Or even go vegan ?

 What do you think about people who knowingly sell on bad meat, for school and hospital meals ?


What will you do ? 

No as I know where the meat I buy comes from. 

No I won’t be emailing my MP
No it’s not an electoral issue for me
I don’t buy organic meat 
100% I would definitely not go vegan 

I think it’s truly awful! My husband works for a wholesale butchers that supply pubs & restaurants so I know how strict the chain of meat production is and what they have to adhere to. From farm to delivery, everything has to be logged and accounted for

To answer what will you do, Nothing as it was one company (as far as I’m aware?) We will always have scandals like the horse meat one years ago. 

There will always be rotten apples that get caught and are hopefully dealt with. Buying from farms isn’t always 100% as do you know where the meat went to be slaughtered and processed?

A._Badger

"It was predicted pre-Brexit, that when the EU citizen vets went home and our food standards were lowered, this is exactly the kind of thing which would happen. "

If you've read the article in Farmer's Weekly you will know that the fraud happened while we were in the EU, so we can safely regard that as just typical kneejerk 'let's blame Brexit'. It is quite likely, moreover, that some of the foreign meat  (bear in mind pork was mentioned in the article) came from EU countries, in any case.

What is particularly disturbing is that the buyers from the big supermarkets didn't pick this up, either, which doesn't say a lot for either their standards or the FSA, to whom the problems were, allegedly, reported several times.   

Nelliegrace

It sounds disgusting. Supplying hospitals and schools, it is surprising that there was no major outbreak of food poisoning. 
If the employees knew about it and did nothing, they should be prosecuted as well as the criminals involved.