Illegal meat van stopped by police who tweeted photo

By Gwen Ridler

- Last updated on GMT

Hertfordshire police stopped a van packed with suspect meat
Hertfordshire police stopped a van packed with suspect meat
An overweight van illegally transporting half a tonne of kebab meat, in what were suspected to be unhygienic conditions, was stopped yesterday (August 8), by Hertfordshire police, who tweeted a photograph of the vehicle.

Officers from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire road policy unit (BCH) discovered the vehicle at 08:45am on the M25.

Police from the BCH took to the social networking site twitter to share an image of the contents of the van – see image below.

It was described by officers as “dragging its rear down the road”.

The overweight van surprised officers with how its kebab cargo had been stored.

Rolls of kebab meat and bags of chicken had been laid on the floor of the van, with a shopping trolley placed on top of the goods.

Not allowed to continue

The vehicle was stopped and the driver was not allowed to continue his journey until a colleague could take part of the load.

While the police described the vehicle as being refrigerated, police constable Ben Pitelen said the condition of the meat “was found in a suspect condition”.

“You’re not really supposed to bung a load of meat in a van and shove a shopping trolley on top,”​ Pitelen told BBC News.

The meat was bought from an early morning meat market in Edmonton in London and was being taken to an address in Woking, Surrey, according to Pitelen.

Early morning meat market

After being taken to a weighbridge, the driver was allowed to complete his journey two hours later, following the arrival of a colleague to transport some of the meat.

The Food Standards Agency has a guide detailing the correct way to transport meat. However, it could not comment on this specific case.

Meanwhile, a kebab manufacturer was ordered to pay more than £9,000 for illegally manufacturing cooked doner meat​ in June.

An investigation of Salford-­based Manchester Meat Products (MMP) in April 2015, found the company was cooking kebabs at its factory. The meat firm did not have approval from the local council to cook the products it made on site.

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