Sources
reveal measures being taken to clean up production, but company denies
allegations of food safety failings
The Guardian,
Felicity Lawrence and Andrew Wasley, 25 July 2014
 |
Chicken
offal piling up on an abattoir floor. Tesco auditors arrived unannounced
at
dawn at the Llangefni plant in Wales.
|
The chicken
factories at the centre of revelations over food poisoning contamination were
checked by Food Standards Agency inspectors on Friday, as sources reported that
Tesco auditors had found failings during a surprise middle-of-the-night
inspection at an abattoir in Wales.
This week's Guardian investigation prompted emergency reviews by three of the UK's leading
supermarkets, and the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, intervened on Thursday to
demand that the FSA investigate more thoroughly, just hours after the agency
had said it was content that correct procedures had been followed.
Labour
accused the government of presiding over a food scandal made possible because
David Cameron had split responsibility for food policy between the FSA, the
Department of Health, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (Defra), and called on him to review the changes.
Undercover footage, photographic evidence and information from whistleblowers revealed how
strict industry hygiene standards to prevent the contamination of chicken with
the potentially deadly campylobacter bacterium can be flouted on the factory
floor and in farms. Two-thirds of fresh chicken on sale in supermarkets is
contaminated with the bug and 280,000 people a year are made sick by it.
Maria
Eagle, the shadow environment secretary, said: "Chaotic changes have
culminated in this bizarre situation where the health secretary has now
demanded an urgent investigation the day the FSA said they were 'content' with
the way the official vet at the chicken processing plant and the company had
dealt with incidents.
"The
prime minister should now admit he got this wrong and clarify the roles and
responsibilities of each department."
The
Guardian understands that Tesco auditors arrived unannounced at 4.30am last
Friday at the Llangefni chicken processing site in Wales owned by the 2 Sisters
group, after the Guardian had approached the retailer with a series of
allegations about hygiene failings at this and another factory. The site
supplies several leading supermarkets and fast food chains.
The alleged
failings included repeated breakdowns that had led to feathers, guts and offal
– high-risk material for the spread of campylobacter – piling up on the factory
floor for hours while production continued. Sources also said water in scald
tanks, through which birds pass before plucking, was not cleaned for three
days. Whistleblowers and an undercover reporter said carcasses that had fallen
on the floor at this site and another owned by the same company in Scunthorpe
were sometimes recycled back on to the production line.
The company
denied this, saying all carcasses from the floor were disposed of as waste. It
also said it did not stop the slaughter line when the evisceration and
defeathering blockages occurred because it had to consider the welfare of
chickens waiting for slaughter. It said that the scald tank incident was
isolated, had only lasted one day, and tests have confirmed that bacteria
counts were acceptable.
Sainsbury's
and Marks and Spencer confirmed they were customers of the Welsh factory and
had carried out inspections, with M&S auditors arriving unannounced last
Wednesday. The Guardian understands the Scunthorpe factory has also been
audited by retailers, and government inspectors arrived there on Friday.
At crisis
meetings on Thursday at the Welsh plant, sources told the Guardian, senior
management described a list of measures being taken to clean up the factory and
change the way it had been working. They said these included bringing in
several extra cleaners, slowing down production lines, ensuring production
stops more promptly at night so there is sufficient time for cleaning, and
stopping slaughter when breakdowns occur.
A spokesman
for 2 Sisters said: "All our customers carry out regular announced and
unannounced visits as per normal business operations. No risks to food safety
have been raised at any time.
"We
work with our customers to continuously improve the quality and safety of our
products. All our factories are constantly reviewed to ensure we improve
procedures and processes. We are duty-bound to refine our systems and we will
continue to do this at all our sites."
Tesco said
it was still investigating. "We take all allegations of this nature
seriously and we are conducting additional visits to our poultry suppliers. If
any issues are identified that go against our strict standards, we will work
with our suppliers to resolve them." M&S and Sainsbury's confirmed
they had audited the Welsh factory and found no breaches affecting food safety.
M&S said it would audit again soon, and Sainsbury's said it had raised a
number of areas for improvement.
A
government spokesperson said: "We do not accept that the current division
of responsibilities between Defra, the Department of Health and the FSA
undermines our ability to protect the public. It is normal for ministers to set
policy and for others to enforce it – in this case the FSA."
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