FSA admits rotten poultry loophole
22 December 2000
FSA admits rotten poultry loophole
By FWi staff
FOOD safety watchdogs have admitted there is an anomaly in Britains regulation of contaminated poultry after a gang was found guilty of a 2.5 million scam.
Three executives were found guilty of selling more than 1000 tonnes of rotten petfood meat for human consumption, reports The Guardian.
Andrew Boid, 33, Darren Bibby, 39, and Peter Tantram, 47, wholesale meat suppliers from the East Midlands, had denied charges of conspiracy to supply unfit meat to the human food chain.
Afterwards, a Food Standards Agency spokeswoman admitted to The Guardian that a legal loophole made poultry exempt from rules which require condemned meat to be stained.
Applying indelible dye is intended to prevent resale for human consumption.
In the three-month trial at Hull Crown Court, QC Ben Nolan, prosecuting, said the gang had caused “an incalculable risk to human health”.
The three men will be sentenced on Friday (22 December).
Alongside them will be John McGinty, a Rotherham meat broker, and Sheffield meat dealer Arnold Smith, who earlier pleaded guilty to their part in the conspiracy.
Three other brokers – Timothy Powell, Louise Tantram and Kevin Wilson – were found not guilty of conspiracy.
Clive Boid, a former director of Prosper De Mulder renderers, was acquitted of conspiracy, but found guilty of fraudulently selling petfood meat as quality human food.
- Former director charged with selling unfit meat, FWi, 13 March, 1998
- The Guardian 22 December 2000 page 3
- The Times 22 December 2000 page 15