Scottish slaughterhouse fined £9,500 for breaking BSE law

Inspectors from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Scotland charged Sandyford Abattoir in Paisley, Renfrewshire with five counts of failing to remove risk material from slaughtered sheep or cattle prior to post-mortem inspection.

Three of the charges concerned spinal cord that was still present in animals at post-mortem inspection and the other two concerned whole spleens being intact inside sheep carcasses at post-mortem inspection.

The case was due to go to Paisley Sheriff court last week (April 5).

However, Sandyford Abattoir pleaded guilty to three of the five charges of breaching the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (Scotland) Regulations 2010 before the trial.

Guilty plea​

The court accepted the firm’s guilty plea and a fine of £9,500 was awarded.

A spokeswoman for the FSA (Scotland) told Foodmanufacture.co.uk: “We note that this case was successfully upheld by the procurator fiscal. The FSA works hard to ensure these establishments comply with their legislative requirements and, where necessary, take appropriate action to secure this. It is testament to the hard work and skilled dedication of our field teams that this has now come to a satisfactory conclusion.” ​

BSE is a transmissible and fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects adult cattle.

This is not the first time that Sandyford Abattoir, which slaughters cattle and sheep for on-site meat wholesalers and butchers, has been found guilty of breaching safety legislation.

In 2010 the company was fined £2,000 for failing to ensure that the spinal cord was removed from the carcass of a sheep aged more than 12 months before being presented for post-mortem inspection.

Also, in November 2011 a 23-year-old man died after being hit by a cow carcass that fell off a production line at Sandyford Abattoir​.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) worked with Strathclyde Police to investigate the death of the worker.

Prohibition Notices​

Sandyford Abattoir was issued with Prohibition Notices under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. They were for preventing the operation or powered movement of the bleeding line with animal carcasses suspended from the rails. The HSE requested that measures were taken to prevent or control the risk of a shackle running down the shackle return rail with an animal carcass attached where it could fall from the rail and cause injury.

No-one from Sandyford Abattoir was available to speak to FoodManufacture.co.uk.

Meanwhile, the Food Manufacture​ Group is staging a free one-hour webinar at 11am GMT on Thursday May 16, in association with business law firm DWF, on the lessons to be learned from the horsemeat crisis. Taking part will be Andrew Rhodes, director of operations at the Food Standards Agency, Professor Tony Hines, head of food security and crisis management at Leatherhead Food Research, and Hilary Ross, partner DWF.

Reserve your free place and find more information here​.