That Stinks! How ‘rotten’ meat was sold in UK supermarkets, supplied to schools, hospitals for years

What can you shop for in supermarkets in the United Kingdom? Salad items like tomatoes and lettuce are being rationed for more than a month now. Record high inflation means prices of groceries are fast rising. Eggs, milk and cheese are becoming unaffordable. And now reports have emerged that the stores may have sold “rotten” meat for years.

An investigation by the trade publication Framers Weekly revealed that one of the country’s top food manufacturers was selling falsely labelled foreign meats as British and sometimes peddled rotten meat to retailers. This wasn’t an isolated incident. It was a practice that continued for at least two decades until the end of 2020.

Also read: Food Poverty Haunts UK: How 4 million children are going hungry

‘Flasely labelled’, ‘rotten’ meat sold in supermarkets, schools

According to the report, the processor, who has not been named, mixed rotten pork with fresh product. This was sent to schools, hospitals, care homes and prisons indirectly. The meat also made its way to ready-to-eat meals, quiches, sandwiches and other products sold at Britain’s top supermarkets like Tesco, Marks & Spencers, Asda, Co-op, and Morrisons. (Tesco is the market leader and Asda is the country’s third-largest grocery store.)

None of the supplier’s customers was aware of its alleged malpractices.

Former staff, who worked with the manufacturer, told Farmers Weekly, that it sold “tens of thousands of tonnes a week” of foreign pork as British. The firm would regularly “wash” hams that were visibly off to pass them off as fine. Other products such as ox tongues were not heat treated properly, and the meat was sometimes thawed out on the factory floor, posing a serious food safety risk, the report says.

According to former employees, tests that showed that the meat picked up bacteria like E-Coli and Listeria were buried and paperwork was falsified. European Union bacon medallions were bought for £1 per kilo and sold as British ones for £12 per kilo.

An employee, who remained anonymous, told Farmers Weekly, “It used to get me to a point where I’d be thinking, ‘We’re going to kill someone’”.

“There were days I’d sit outside in my car crying because I didn’t want to go in. It was that bad,” another added.

The supplier reportedly misled food inspectors by hiding suspected meat in lorries and other parts of the factory. One way they dodged auditors was by having an employee push the suspect meat around the circle-shaped factory as the auditor went around too, so they never came across it, The Mirror reports.

Also read: In UK, one shopper can buy only two tomatoes, two cucumbers: Why are supermarkets limiting sales of fruits, veggies?

The investigation

The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has launched a criminal investigation to probe the alleged rogue meat supplier.

Based on the investigation so far, the FSA said, “There is no indication that food is unsafe or there is an increased risk” to consumers, reports the BBC.

“Criminal investigations take time and need to be done with due process and fairness. The FSA will work tirelessly on behalf of consumers to ensure that this criminal investigation is done to the highest possible standards,” Emily Miles, the chief executive of the FSA added.

According to Darren Davies, head of the FSA’s national food crime unit (NFCU), last year, the agency advised retailers to check their cooked meat chain and be extra diligent about the checks. “We don’t give out these alerts without a reason,” he added.

He warned that amid the cost-of-living crisis suppliers face pressure to report profits and this means that food fraud could increase. “At a time when cost pressures and other challenges mean the risks of food fraud might be increasing, it is vital that everyone involved in the food system remains extra vigilant to ensure that food is safe and what it says it is,” he said, according to The Guardian.

The fallout

The UK government has also stepped in and is considering tightening its control over the FSA. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is looking at bringing the food agency under its control.

The FSA is a non-ministerial agency currently overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, which is responsible for public health related to food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the report says.

The chair of the environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) select committee, Sir Robert Goodwill told The Guardian, “We could be looking at people going to prison because of how serious this all is.”

With inputs from agencies

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