A Northampton butcher has been fined after pleading guilty to selling meat which was unfit for human consumption and falsely labelling foreign meat as British.
Peter Salmons of The Meating Place in Billing Garden Village, Northampton, has been fined £14,000 for the offences.
Northamptonshire County Council Trading Standards retrieved samples of meat from The Meating Place in September 2015. Tests later proved that the meat had excessive protein breakdown, which is an indication of the meat ‘going off’.
A second visit to the premises in December 2015 discovered that all pre-packed chicken fillets and pork steaks were of foreign origin despite the pack labelling stating ‘Country of Origin: British’.
According to Northamptonshire County Council, it is estimated that approximately 40% of the meat being sold as British at The Meating Place in the past seven months has not been of British origin.
Cllr Andre Gonzalez De Savage, county council deputy leader and cabinet member for public protection, commented: “There was real potential for a safety issue here in that selling meat that is unfit for human consumption can have serious health repercussions for anyone eating it.
“This business had also received previous warnings about the sale of meat with excessive protein breakdown and yet they had continued to commit offences.
“These were very serious charges about issues that consumers would be unable to detect for themselves and I’m delighted with the work of our Trading Standards officers in pursuing this case and getting a result in the Magistrates Court.
“I think this sends out a warning to anyone flouting food regulations that we take this very seriously indeed and will take legal action as necessary.”
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.
