Unsafe meat ruling: food firm director fined £10k

Chrysalis Enterprises director Ben Loeber was convicted earlier this month after illegally putting unsafe chicken, beef and pork products in storage in Northamptonshire.

Environment health officers found 16 pallets of meat products, which were past their use-by date and had inadequate labelling, during an inspection of a cold store in Daventry on January 31 2014.

Meat for free

The meat was confiscated and sent to a pet food processor after Loeber failed to provide paperwork tracing its origin. He had got the meat for free during a clear-out at a cold store in Suffolk.

Northampton Magistrates’ Court ruled that placing the unsafe meat in the cold store amounted to placing the food on the market where it could re-enter the human food chain.

Loeber, whose business was based in Henry Bird Way, Northampton, denied the charge, claiming he had only stored the meat for sorting purposes.

Unsafe food on the market

The director was fined £5,000 for placing unsafe food on the market, £5,000 for failing to ensure its traceability and £500 for failing to withdraw it from the market.

He was also ordered to pay legal costs of £10,000 and a victim surcharge of £120.

Councillor Mike Warren, health and housing portfolio holder at Daventry District Council, welcomed the guilty verdict delivered on October 2. 

“This was unsafe food that could have entered the human food chain without our intervention,” Warren said. “The traceability of food is absolutely vital to ensuring food safety.

“People should have confidence that the food on their plate is safe to eat and without the proper paperwork there is no way of knowing where food came from or how it has been treated.”

Loeber was cleared of three charges related to allegedly placing ‘pigs-in-blanket’ sausages and unsmoked dry cured bacon on the market contrary to health and safety regulations.