UK catering butcher Russell Hume, which supplied the JD Wetherspoon chain and other high-profile restaurateurs such as Jamie Oliver, has been closed for several days now as a result of a Food Standards Agency (FSA) investigation.

Russell Hume is a major player in the British catering trade, with the Wetherspoon chain alone selling a reported 200,000 steaks per week.

What is particularly striking is that it is rare for the Food Standards Agency, and its equivalent organisation Food Standards Scotland, to take such extreme action.

They have limited their comments so far, saying that they don’t want to prejudice any possible enforcement action.

They have, however, said that production and sales have been stopped at all Russell Hume depots across the UK, with a voluntary recall of all product sent out.

Investigation

A company-wide investigation was triggered following an unannounced audit at one of the company’s sites, which triggered a wider investigation.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said this revealed “that there was a more systemic and widespread problem which was more serious in terms of its scale and nature.

“It was only at this stage issues of serious non-compliance were uncovered. These related to a number of issues including concerns about procedures and processes around use-by dates.”

Issues of serious non-compliance were uncovered

There is no indication of when the company will resume business and the seriousness of the situation is emphasised by FSA chief executive Jason Feeney’s comment that “We don’t take decisions to stop production, instigate product recalls or withdrawals lightly.

“Our job is to ensure that food produced by a business is safe and clearly we must take a proportionate approach.”

Irish interest

The Irish interest in what is going on at Russell Hume is because they are a large buyer of Irish beef and a major customer of beef from factories across the island of Ireland.

The comment by the FSA is focused on the “systemic and widespread problem” with “issues of serious non-compliance … about procedures and processes around use-by dates.”

Russell Hume is a major player in the British restaurant trade and, as the Wetherspoons number of 200,000 steaks per week indicates, a serious buyer of steak meat in particular.

Accounts

In Russell Hume’s most recent accounts for the year ending March 2016, it had a £131m (€150m) and a profit before tax of £3.7m (€4.2m).

Company chairman David Holding said in December 2016 that “2016 overall was very challenging” and there had been a “significant effect through the Brexit vote on exchange rates, which have had a direct effect on the price of meat.”

Wetherspoons has cancelled its contract so clearly restaurants have moved on to other suppliers, while operations at the Russell Hume business has ceased.

Challenge

It will be quite a challenge for the company to recover these clients and rebuild the business following what has been clearly a serious compliance failure which has lasted several days.

For Irish suppliers, there is big customer of steak meat missing from the market.

Given the pressures the FSA's actions have caused Russell Hume, some suppliers may be looking anxiously at their level of credit exposure to the company.

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