Marks & Spencer, Aldi and Lidl have suspended buying chicken from 2 Sisters Food Group’s West Bromwich plant following a Guardian and ITV News investigation that found evidence it had tampered with food safety records.
The moves came as the Food Standards Agency said its inspectors had audited the site on Thursday, as it announced its own investigation on the back of the Guardian’s and ITV’s evidence of potential regulatory breaches at the chicken processor. The regulator also urged “anyone with information for this investigation” to make contact.
A spokesman for Marks & Spencer said on Friday: “We have commenced an immediate investigation into these allegations and will not be taking any more product from the West Bromwich site until it has concluded to our satisfaction.
“As per our statement yesterday, the standards shown in the footage are unacceptable, we take hygiene and traceability very seriously and have extremely high production standards.”
Aldi said: “We have suspended supply from this site while we carry out an urgent investigation into these allegations. We expect all suppliers to adhere to the highest possible food hygiene and traceability standards at all times.”
Lidl added: “Lidl UK takes the issue of food safety extremely seriously and we were very disappointed to see the unacceptable standards shown in yesterday’s report. We immediately launched an investigation with the supplier and can confirm that we will not be sourcing from those sites until the investigations have been satisfactorily concluded”.
Tesco and Sainsbury’sare also carrying out investigations into the 2SFG plant in West Bromwich, where the evidence of potential breaches was filmed. All five supermarkets are supplied by the plant.
The Food Standards Agency said: “Following allegations made in an undercover report from ITV News and the Guardian, Food Standards Agency inspectors went into the plant in question [on Thursday] to begin our investigation.
“Our inspectors found no evidence of breaches. However we continue to review the evidence and if any incidences of non-compliance are found we will take prompt and proportionate action with the business concerned, working closely with the local authority.
“We would urge ITV and the Guardian to share any additional evidence, including witness statements, that would inform our investigation. This particular cutting plant is regularly audited by the FSA and they are also subject to unannounced inspections. The FSA urges anyone with information for this investigation to contact them.”
On Thursday, an investigation by the Guardian and ITV News revealed undercover footage of an instance of workers altering the slaughter date of poultry at a 2 Sisters Food Group plant in West Bromwich. Workers at the company confirmed they had been asked to switch the labels on other occasions.
Experts said changing “kill dates” could artificially stretch the commercial life of meat products by triggering the food processor to print incorrect use-by dates on supermarket packaging.
It is illegal to place incorrect use-by dates on food, which are set for safety reasons and differ from “best before” dates.
2SFG said it had not been given enough time or detail to investigate the allegations, but that “hygiene and food safety will always be the number one priority within the business, and they remain at its very core”.
It added: “We also successfully operate in one of the most tightly controlled and highly regulated food sectors in the world. We are subject to multiple and frequent unannounced audits from the FSA, BRC, Red Tractor, independent auditors as well as our customers. By example, our facility in the West Midlands under investigation received nine audits (five unannounced) in the months of July and August alone.”
The discovery comes just four years after the 2013 horsemeat scandal, which has resulted in prison sentences for those convicted of a conspiracy to pass off cheaper horsemeat as beef.
Paul Flynn, a Labour member of the Commons environment, food and rural affairs select committee, said the allegations could damage the UK’s ability to market foods after leaving the EU, adding he would raise the matter at the committee’s next meeting.
He said: “The foundations of trust in the quality of British food will be shaken by the Guardian’s and ITV’s evidence.
“It challenges the canard that UK standards are the among the world’s best. The reputational damage could profoundly undermine our ability to market foods to new customers in the tumultuous Brexit future.
“I believe this is a matter of grave concern that demands the attention of the Efra committee.”
The joint investigation, which involved taking secret recordings during a spell of 12 working days inside 2 Sisters’ plant in West Bromwich, also captured evidence that:
Chicken portions returned by supermarket distribution centres are being repackaged by 2 Sisters and sent out again to major grocers.
Workers drop chickens on the floor of the processing plant and return them to the production line.
Workers alter records of where chickens were slaughtered, potentially hindering authorities from recalling contaminated meat during food scares.
Chickens slaughtered on different dates are mixed on the production line. Workers said use-by dates printed on the packets of the mixed chicken tended to reflect the age of the freshest, rather than oldest, meat in the batch.
Having been shown the evidence, Prof Chris Elliott, a food safety academic from Queen’s University Belfast who led the UK government’s independent review of food systems after the 2013 horsemeat scandal, said: “Over the past three to four years I have conducted many inspections of food businesses right across the UK. I have never seen one operate under such poor standards as your video evidence shows.
“I think [this] absolutely calls out for a full investigation. We need to get environmental health officers, we need to get the Food Standards Agency to do a thorough investigation. The Food Standards Agency will take this very seriously. They will look at the premises and see if there are grounds to close the facility down.”
The company said it had not been given enough time or detail to respond to the allegations, which it described as “false”.
2 Sisters Food Group's response to our investigation
We have been made aware of several broad allegations made by the Guardian/ITV in relation to inappropriate procedures, food safety and hygiene issues at two of our poultry processing facilities. We view these allegations extremely seriously. However, we have not been given the time or the detailed evidence to conduct any thorough investigations to establish the facts, which makes a fulsome and detailed response very difficult. What we can confirm is that hygiene and food safety will always be the number one priority within the business, and they remain at its very core. We also successfully operate in one of the most tightly-controlled and highly regulated food sectors in the world. We are subject to multiple and frequent unannounced audits from the FSA, BRC, Red Tractor, independent auditors as well as our customers. By example, our facility in the West Midlands under investigation received nine audits (five unannounced) in the months of July and August alone. However, we are never complacent and remain committed to continually improving our processes and procedures. If, on presentation of further evidence, it comes to light any verifiable transgressions have been made at any of our sites, we will leave no stone unturned in investigating and remedying the situation immediately.
A letter from 2 Sisters Food Group’s legal advisers, Schillings, said: “Food safety and hygiene are 2SFG’s top priorities. To the extent that you have identified any shortcomings (which is not admitted), these could only be isolated examples which our clients would take very seriously, and they are investigating the allegations made.”
During the course of the investigation, the Guardian and ITV News interviewed more than 20 workers at 2 Sisters about standards within the company.
One worker said: “I have [changed the slaughter dates] lots of times when I was working in that area. My supervisor, he asked me to do it … If you are buying fresh chicken it can be older chicken.”
A second worker claimed that 2 Sisters quality control staff in the West Midlands were working in a “pointless job” and could feel intimidated and be overruled by production supervisors who treated them as “enemies”.
On one occasion the Guardian/ITV News footage captured workers altering the “kill date” of hundreds of chickens to one day later at the group’s West Bromwich plant in August. Other workers added that they had witnessed dates being altered by more than a day.
Supermarket products typically have a use-by date around 10 days after the bird has been slaughtered.
Speaking about how chicken is returned by supermarket distribution centres, a third 2 Sisters worker said: “They will repack [the returned meat] like [it is] today’s production ... It is sent back on [the line] like today’s production. They mix it with today’s production.”
Supermarkets return chicken to suppliers for a variety of reasons that can include packaging and labelling errors. Being returned does not mean it is unfit to eat. However, if older meat is mixed with fresher meat, the use-by date should reflect the age of the oldest meat in the batch.
A fourth worker added: “I try to make them change the [use-by] date to [reflect the] older DOK [date of kill] but that doesn’t happen – they mix.”
The footage shows chicken that has been processed and packed for Lidl being reopened and mixed with other pieces of poultry. The drumsticks re-emerge at the end of the line in packets saying they have come from Tesco’s Willow Farms. The labelling on the pack says the contents are “reared exclusively for Tesco”.
Schillings said: “The Willow Farms brand is exclusive to Tesco, but the raw material is not. 2SFG meets the raw materials specifications for the Willow Farms brand.”
The Guardian and ITV News showed the undercover footage to four government meat inspectors, who would speak only on condition of anonymity. All of them said they believed the film showed potential breaches of food regulations.
Food law experts also added that the film amounted to prima facie evidence that the company had potentially committed offences.
Dr Richard Hyde, an expert in food law at Nottingham University, added: “If you are placing a use-by date that is incorrect that is a breach of law. If you place food on the market that doesn’t have the correct traceability information that is a criminal offence. There are a basket of potential offences here that the regulators need to look at and decide whether further action is required.”
The food processor said that Elliott and Hyde had not visited 2 Sisters sites or considered its policies, so their comments “cannot be, in any way, objective expert evidence, but are completely unbalanced, based on biased selective information”.
2 Sisters Food Group is the UK’s second largest food company by turnover and claims to process around 6 million chickens every week.
It is owned by Ranjit Singh Boparan and his wife, Baljinder Kaur Boparan, and the chicken operations – which include 12 sites in the UK – are part of a sprawling £3bn food empire that separately includes the turkey producer Bernard Matthews, the restaurant chains Harry Ramsden, FishWorks and Giraffe, plus food brands such as Fox’s Biscuits and Goodfella’s pizza.
The Boparans, who have always shunned publicity, are worth £544m, according to the Sunday Times rich list.
The company added: “2SFG ensures all staff are fully trained on hygiene and safety matters, and enforces a number of policies to ensure compliance with all regulations. It is subject to regular audits in these areas and staff have a number of ways in which to voice their concerns.
“2SFG has reviewed its [whistleblower hotline] records for Site D from the previous 12 months and there are no complaints from any quality assurance staff resembling those cited.”
The five big supermarkets supplied by 2 Sisters’ West Bromwich plant all said they took quality and safety standards very seriously and were investigating.
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We operate to the highest possible food quality and safety standards, carrying out our own regular audits at all of our suppliers to ensure these standards are maintained. As such, we take these allegations extremely seriously and will be carrying out our own rigorous investigation.”
A Lidl spokesperson said: “Lidl UK takes the issue of food safety extremely seriously and, as such, we conduct independent audits to ensure that our high quality and safety standards are met. Therefore, we are very disappointed to learn of these allegations and will be urgently investigating this matter with the supplier.”
- Additional reporting by Olivier Acuña.