Factory mixes up organic and non-organic chicken
Report reveals new failings at firm supplying supermarkets
A FACTORY that processes chicken for major supermarkets mixed up organic and non- organic poultry, a leaked report has revealed.
it also found that staff at the 2 Sisters plant in Coupar angus, in Perth and Kinross, could not show what had happened to 250 crates of chicken earmarked for disposal.
The plant was handed a ‘red’ warning by Tesco auditors after an emergency inspection found five key failings at the factory. Similar food hygiene issues emerged at another 2 Sisters plant, in West bromwich, in September.
in the latest report, inspectors found any member of staff could have accessed a computer that changes ‘ use-by’ dates on meat, as it was not password protected.
Concerns were also raised about meat labelling, which is the way staff can check use-by dates. The report said that some chicken was double- labelled, while others didn’t have any labelling at all. even though no food safety regulations were broken, the Coupar angus plant was handed the worst score for its ‘major’ issues.
The report, produced in October, came the same weekend as the firm’s West bromwich plant was shut after an inquiry found staff were changing slaughter dates to prolong the shelf- life of older chicken. 2 Sisters said none of the mixed- up chicken marked as waste was bought by customers and no staff members had used the computer to change use-by dates, according to The guardian and ITV, which reported the leak.
The company, which produces chicken for supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s, marks & Spencer and Tesco, also said the computer in question had been moved.
earlier this year, workers were filmed changing date labels, which meant customers could be eating meat after a safe use-by date.
Chicken was put on the production line after it had fallen on the floor and older chicken pieces were mixed with fresh ones.
a Tesco spokesman said: ‘When we became aware of the issues at 2 Sisters’ West bromwich site, we immediately conducted an additional 46 visits and inspections across other 2 Sisters poultry sites. none of the specific food safety risks highlighted at West bromwich were replicated at any other site. Tesco’s inspections did not identify regulatory breaches at any of 2 Sisters sites.
‘Our inspection highlighted a number of inadequate processes at this site, including labelling, segregation, traceability and recording. We insisted these were addressed immediately.’
Tesco said it had shared the report with the Food Standards agency, which is currently investigating the original findings.
2 Sisters said: ‘ITV and The guardian are referring to standard inspection audits and appear to be trying to damage the reputation of our factories and potentially the livelihoods of 23,000 colleagues by misrepresenting them.
‘There is and never was any risk to food safety at Coupar angus. This is using old news to highlight issues which were resolved with our customer two months ago.’