From WATTAgNet:
Ranjit Boparan, owner of U.K. poultry company 2 Sisters Food Group, has been summoned by the House of Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee as the company is in the midst of a food safety scandal.
Boparan is also the owner of Bernard Matthews, a U.K. turkey company. Boparan acquired the company in 2016.
Committee Chairman Neil Paris said it was necessary to hear from Boparan to ensure that the welfare and food safety procedures at 2 Sisters Food Group plants were being carried out properly.
2 Sisters Food Group recently suspended operations at its poultry plant in West Bromwich, following news reports that alleged there were food safety breaches at the facility.
The Guardian and ITV 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
2 Sisters launched its own investigation, and while it did not identify any breaches, the company did find some “isolated instances of non-compliance with our own quality management systems.”
The U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA) also found no breaches, but stated that its investigation was ongoing, and if any instances of non-compliance were found, prompt and appropriate action would be taken.
Grocers end contracts
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., but with the recent food safety scare, three major retailers in the U.K. have ended contracts with the company. According to a report in the Eastern Eye, those retailers are Marks and Spencer, Aldi and Lidl.
BOPARAN TO FACE MPS OVER POULTRY UNIT ‘SAFETY’
The founder of the country’s biggest chicken supplier has been summoned by a House of Commons committee following media investigations into safety and hygiene standards at the company’s Midlands site.