Meat firm hit with record fine over BSE carcass regulations

A slaughterhouse which supplies meat to major supermarkets has been handed the largest ever fine of its kind after inspectors found it failed to comply with laws aimed at preventing the spread of BSE.

Dunbia’s Preston abattoir in the north of England, which supplies supermarkets including Sainsbury’s and the Co-op, was fined £266,000 by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) after pleading guilty for failing to ensure the removal of specified parts of the animals required by law.

FSA inspectors found a sheep without a fully removed spleen and a cow that had not had its spinal cord fully removed. The final charge was for two sheep heads with permanent incisors erupted which were incorrectly identified as lambs and therefore destined for human consumption instead of disposal. The infringements relate to the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) regulations.

After pleading guilty, Dunbia received a reduced £250,000 fine for the three offences and was ordered to pay full prosecution costs of £16,121.42 and a victim surcharge of £170. The company, which employs thousands of people at its 11 sites throughout the UK and Ireland, processes beef and lamb for retailers. It bought Lynch Quality Meats in Ayr in 2014 and also owns Highland Meats in Saltcoats.

The written judgment from judge Andrew Woolman was issued following a sentencing hearing at Preston Crown Court on 11 March.

TSE regulations help to reduce risk from a group of brain diseases that cattle, sheep and goats are vulnerable to by requiring correct removal and disposal of specific parts of those animals before they enter the food chain. The most widely recognised of these diseases is BSE in cattle – often known as “mad cow disease” – which has been linked to the human TSE diseases such as Creutzfeldtjakob disease (CJD). BSE was first identified in cattle in 1986 and was found to be capable of spreading to humans a year later. A case of the disease was found on a farm in Aberdeenshire last year.

Dr Colin Sullivan, chief operating officer at the FSA, said: “This very significant fine underlines just how seriously breaches of these regulations are taken.

“The FSA will continue to investigate and prosecute any food businesses we find failing to uphold them.”

A spokesman for the company said: “Whilst recognising human error was the cause, the controls in place ensured that none of the meat products concerned entered the food chain.”