Meat firm apologises after steak mislabelled as Welsh
Investigation after beef carried prestigious PGI label, but had come from Australia
THE boss of a meat processing business has apologised to customers after an Australian steak was incorrectly labelled as being Welsh beef.
The Texan steak, which was bought for £2.88 from Llechwedd Meats, in Llangefni, Anglesey, sported the prestigious PGI label that showed the beef came from Wales.
However on closer inspection, it clearly shows the animal was born, reared and slaughtered in Australia.
Gareth Wyn Jones shared an image of the label to 39,000 of his Twitter followers, which prompted a big response.
Anything labelled ‘Welsh Beef’ means that the animals must be born and reared in Wales.
Welsh beef was granted Protected Geographical Indication ( PGI ) status by the European Commission in November 2002, and is a mark of quality.
Llechwedd Meats, a family run business established in 1988, has since apologised and blamed the mislabelling on ‘human error’ due to huge staffing shortages.
The business says on its website that : “All our products are fully traceable from “farm gate to dinner plate”.
Llechwedd Meats managing director Nathan Roberts said: “We found out last night about this labelling problem and were on site at 5am this morning trying to work out what has happened.
“It turns out a member of staff put the PGI label on three pieces of the Australian steak. It’s been caused by human error.
“We categorically didn’t mean to mislead anyone and we apologise to our customers and thank them for their support.”
“We have a staffing problem at the moment, out of 52 staff we can lose seven or nine of any given day because of Covid and so on,”added Mr Roberts.
He added: “We’ve tried to recruit more staff but are struggling to retain the new ones for more than two to three days, I’m not sure why.”
Llanfairfechan farmer Gareth Wyn Jones later said: ‘I’m pleased to hear the label was a mistake, as it was misleading to consumers.”
It’s understood officers
Pic: GoogleStreetview from Hybu Cig Cymru (Meat Promotion Wales) were in Llangefni last Monday investigating the matter.
A spokesman for Hybu Cig Cymru said: “HCC is concerned at reports of what appears to be imported beef mislabelled as Welsh. We are investigating the matter as a matter of urgency.
“Cases of mislabelling are fortunately rare. Welsh Beef has an excellent reputation as a high quality sustainable product, backed up by world-leading standards of traceability. We are committed to ensuring that consumers can have confidence that if it’s Welsh they want, it’s Welsh they get.”
An Isle of Anglesey County Council spokesperson said: “Our Trading Standards Team is currently investigating the matter to determine whether any breaches have been made.
“We are unable to comment further as we are at the early stages of an investigation.”