AIMS challenges FSA in Supreme Court

The case, due to be heard on Tuesday 5 March, stems from a 2014 situation when Stockton-based AIMS member Cleveland Meat purchased a bull at Darlington Farmers Mart. According to The Supreme Court, after the animal was slaughtered, the OV found that the animal was diseased and so declared it unfit for human consumption, and refused to award it a health mark. Cleveland did not agree with the OV’s decision.

Cleveland considered the bull was healthy and sought to challenge the OV’s decision. However, the FSA took the view that there was no right to appeal against or challenge a decision of an OV as to the fitness of meat for human consumption.

Cleveland brought a claim for judicial review of the decision that it had no right of appeal against the OV’s decision.

In the previous hearing in the High Court in 2017, the FSA’s stance was upheld, leading AIMS to bring the matter to the Supreme Court. However AIMS contends that the FSA should have let the business challenge the decision to mark it as unfit for human consumption

Cleveland went into administration in August 2017 and site was sold to Darlington Farmers Auction Mart Company in March 2018.