After fervent speculation last week northern retailer, Booths has been revealed as the retailer of certain cooked meat products, under investigation by the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU).
Following an NFCU investigation into cooked meat products being labelled as British, but orginating from South America and/or Europe retailer Booths itself is not under investigation by the NFCU.
The supermarket issued a statement at the end of last week: "Booths are categorically NOT under investigation by the National Food Crime Unit.
"Booths support for the investigation relates to a limited selection of cooked meat products and Booths have no knowledge of any other aspects of the investigation. At the point of being made aware of the potential issues in 2021 Booths acted instantly, removing all relevant products from sale and ceased trading with the supplier with immediate effect.
"Booths would like to confirm that fresh meat, poulty and game products are entirely unaffected by this investigation and that with the exception of th limited selection of cooked meat products impacted in 2021 Booths is absolutely confident in its British only meat commitment. It is also important to note that whilst the NFCU investigation relates to a potential serious food fraud incident, this is not a food safety issue."
Provenance
The retailer went on to say: "Issues of provenance, traceabililty, honesty and authenticity are of the highest importance to Booths and the business has been fully co-operating with and supporting the work of the NFCU for the past 18 months. It is important that the NFCU is able to complete its investigations in an objective and impartial manner. The NFCU continues to have the full support of Booths and to that effect, Booths will make no further comment at this stage, any further enquiries relating to this matter should be directed to the NFCU."
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
