Ranjit Boparan, owner of U.K. poultry company 2 Sisters Food Group, told members of the House of Commons he was apologetic for lost confidence in the safety of the poultry produced at company plants, but insisted that the company has high food safety standards.
Boparan appeared before the House’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee as 2 Sisters Food Group became the center of a food safety scandal.
While speaking to the committee, Boparan apologized for the doubt the scandal has caused to its customers, consumers and employees. He also asserted that the company’s products were safe and invited the committee members to visit 2 Sisters facilities, according to a Birmingham Mail report. “Come announced or unannounced,” Boparan said.
Boparan also said he had arranged for a “mystery worker” to go into plants to locate any staff member who may be breaking the rules.
The food safety scandal came to light this fall when The Guardian and ITV released reports that alleged the company had:
- Committed hygiene failures, including picking chicken meat off of the floor and placing it back on a conveyor
- Manipulated slaughter date labels to make the meat seem fresher than it really was
- Repackaged meat that had been returned from other stores with incorrect dates printed on labels
- Mixed older poultry meat with newer poultry meat
In response, 2 Sisters Food Group launched its own investigation and found no breaches, although the company did find some “isolated instances of non-compliance with our own quality management systems.” Also in response to the allegations, the company suspended operations at its poultry plant in West Bromwich and retrained its staff on all food safety and quality management systems.
The U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA), also found no breaches, but stated that its investigation was ongoing.
2 Sisters Food Group, according to the WATTAgNet Top Poultry Companies Database, supplies about a third of all poultry products consumed in the U.K.
