One of UK's largest chicken suppliers halt operations amid 'string of health and safety breaches'

One of the largest suppliers of chicken to UK supermarkets has suspended operations after a 'string of health and safety breaches were revealed'
PA Wire/PA Images

One of the biggest chicken suppliers to Britain’s supermarkets has halted operations after an alleged string of health and safety breaches.

2 Sisters Food Group (2SFG) has said it will only restart supply once it is satisfied its workers have been “appropriately retrained”.

It comes after an undercover reporter working at the supplier’s West Midlands site claimed to witness employees tampering with slaughter dates and mixing meat of different ages.

Source codes on crates of meat were also changed, the investigation by ITV News and The Guardian claimed.

The practices can artificially extend the shelf life of meat, and make it untraceable in the event of an outbreak of food poisoning.

When meats of different ages were mixed together, the slaughter date of the newest batch rather than the oldest batch would be used, employees claimed.

Some workers also claimed the chicken that supermarkets reject is sometimes repackaged at the factory and sent out again.

Quality assurance workers told journalists they were intimidated by production managers and worry about being sent home if they try to enforce food hygiene rules.

2SFG said in a statement on Sunday that it was “shocked and distressed” by the allegations.

It added:"We responded immediately by launching our own internal investigation at our West Bromwich plant and invited the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to independently review our standards.

"The FSA has been in daily attendance since the allegations were raised and confirmed that it has not identified any breaches.

"However, our internal investigation has shown some isolated instances of non-compliance with our own quality management systems.

"We have therefore decided to temporarily suspend operations at the site to allow us the time to retrain all colleagues including management in all food safety and quality management systems.

All staff will remain on full pay, the statement added.

On Sunday, Tesco became the latest supermarket to say it had decided to suspend buying chicken from the company, following Marks & Spencer, Aldi and Lidl.

2SFG was founded in 1993 and now produces one third of all of the poultry products consumed in the UK, and had revenues of £3.1 billion in 2016.

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