Food Standards Agency orders Farmbox Meats recall
Concerns over traceability and temperature prompted the recall, according to FSA officials.
The Ceredigion firm, based at Llandre, Aberystwyth is no longer trading after going into receivership in June.
The food safety watchdog said on Friday (September 6): “Heads of Environmental Health and directors of Trading Standards will wish to be aware that a company formerly trading as Farmbox Meats has supplied frozen beef trim found to breach food safety regulations.”
‘Proper temperature controls’
“We believe that the product has not been subject to proper temperature controls and does not comply with traceability requirements under food law.”
The FSA added that it had proved impossible to obtain full distribution details or product traceability records for products supplied by Farmbox Meats.
But a spokesman for the firm denied that it had breached food safety rules. “The issues which the FSA has now raised are historic, particularly in view of the fact that the company has long gone into administration,” a spokesman for Farmbox’s former owner Dafydd Raw-Rees told BBC News.
The alleged breaches were unsubstantiated, factually inaccurate and “a complete misinterpretation of the legal position”, the spokesman claimed.
Police and officials investigating horsemeat contamination in processed beef products raided Farmbox Meats and Peter Boddy’s Licensed Slaughterhouse, Todmordon, West Yorkshire last Februrary.
Disputed hygiene standards
Farmbox Meats received conditional approval to restart trading in March. But the FSA later withdrew the approval over disputed hygiene standards.
In early June official receivers were appointed, following after a hearing at Manchester High Court.
The recall affects all frozen lamb, beef and mutton trim – predominantly in frozen blocks – supplied by Farmbox Meats.
Local authorities have been asked to contact establishments, such as meat processors, in their area likely to purchase the implicated products.
Enforcement officers who discover the recalled products were advised to ensure that the products were withdrawn from sale and detained, if necessary using powers under the Food Safety Act 1990.
Traceability and compliance with food laws will take centre stage at Food Manufacture’s Food Safety Conference to be staged at the National Motocycle Museum on Thursday, October 17.
The one-day conference will be addressed by Andrew Rhodes, FSA operations director, Sue Davies, chief policy adviser Which?, and other leading industry experts.
More information and ticket reservation is available here.
