2 Sisters hygiene scandal: Production suspended at West Bromwich processing plant
Black Country food supplier 2 Sisters has suspended production at its West Bromwich processing plant over the hygiene scandal which has engulfed the company.
The temporary closure by 2 Sisters Food Group will allow employees at the plant to be put through a retraining programme.
It came as Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, joined the boycott of the poultry group’s West Midlands plant following an undercover investigation by the Guardian and ITV News.
The 2 Sisters Food Group, is headed by Ranjit Boparan, one of the Black Country's richest men, and churns out six million chickens a week as part of an operation that produces a third of all the poultry products consumed in the country.
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The claims by the Guardian and ITV include older birds being dumped in with fresh stock but given the same sell-by dates.
It is also alleged that chickens had been thrown back on the production line after falling on the floor and that records of where the birds were slaughtered were also altered, making them difficult to trace.
It is claimed a quality assurance inspector was physically pushed aside when trying to stop a batch of chickens leaving the West Bromwich plant.
A 2 Sisters spokesman said today: “We are shocked and distressed by the allegations and the footage which we saw for the first time on Thursday September 28th.
"Since the allegations were put to us by the Guardian/ITV, we have been working around the clock to get to the truth of the matter.
"We responded immediately by launching our own internal investigation at our West Bromwich plant and invited the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to independently review our standards.
"The FSA has been in daily attendance since the allegations were raised and confirmed that it has not identified any breaches.
"However, our internal investigation has shown some isolated instances of non-compliance with our own Quality management systems."
"We have therefore decided to temporarily suspend operations at the site to allow us the time to retrain all colleagues including management in all Food safety and Quality management systems.
"All colleagues will remain on full pay and will attend site whilst training is undertaken.
"We will only recommence supply once we are satisfied that our colleagues have been appropriately retrained.
"We continue to work closely with the FSA and our customers throughout this period.
"We remain committed to ensuring that we operate to the highest standards of hygiene and food safety, and we act with honesty and integrity at all times."
In a statement to the Guardian tonight, Tesco said: “Following last week’s allegations of poor practices at 2 Sisters we conducted additional quality assurance tests. We’d like to reassure customers our initial investigation supported the Food Standards Agency’s findings that there was no current evidence of breach of food safety procedures.
"However, there have been isolated incidents where food quality procedures have not been followed and therefore, in agreement with 2 Sisters we have decided to suspend all orders from Site D so that staff can receive further training. We will not be taking any more chicken from the site until this has been addressed and all processes are carried out to the highest standard.”
On Friday Marks & Spencer, Aldi and Lidl all announced they had suspended deliveries from the 2 Sisters plant. Sainsbury’s followed suit on Saturday.
