UK admits poultry firm’s violations

The UK government’s food watchdog has admitted that an initial inquiry clearing one of Britain’s largest poultry processing plants of hygiene failings was misleading.

Instances of chickens being dropped on the floor then returned to the production line constituted a “breach of the legislation,” the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has now acknowledged, said a Tuesday report by major British daily The Guardian, which documented the failings in its investigation into the poultry industry.

Following The Guardian’s revelations at the site in Scunthorpe in July, the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, asked the FSA to investigate. It rated the factory as good and wrote to the shadow food and farming minister saying that there was no evidence of any breaches of food hygiene legislation.

But in an embarrassing climb-down less than a month on, the FSA has written to Labor’s Huw Irranca-Davies admitting it was wrong. It has reviewed The Guardian’s undercover footage showing dirty birds from the floor being thrown back into food production and concluded there has been a serious breach. But it has not issued a penalty, saying the company has assured the problem has been addressed.

The admission comes as fresh allegations of hygiene failings at the factory emerged, with three former employees making claims about dirty chickens contaminating the production line and attempts to manipulate inspections up to 2012.

Labour said the FSA admission and the new questions over safety raised serious questions about the poultry inspection system in the UK.

Irranca-Davies said government inaction was damaging confidence in the food industry.