Two UK meat trading companies have begun withdrawing products from the market, following inspections by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS).

On Sunday, Fairfax Meadow began the voluntary withdrawal of some of its meat products from its catering customers. This followed unannounced inspections by the FSA and FSS on Thursday, 8 February.

Inspections

“Those unannounced inspections revealed concerns about the procedures and processes the company had been using to apply use by dates on some of its products,” the FSA said.

“Our review is ongoing but the company has acted properly and proportionately in swiftly withdrawing potentially affected products from the market.”

Recall

On Thursday, the FSA and FSS published details of another meat recall, by UK company Muscle Food.

It followed an unannounced inspection by the FSA of Muscle Food’s supplier, DB Foods.

“We had concerns about procedures at DB Foods for use-by dates on some products that were not compliant with legal requirements,” the FSA said.

Muscle Food supplies meat products via its website directly to the public and the business is contacting all of its affected customers to make them aware of the recall.

The FSA said that there was no indication that people have become ill from eating meat supplied by DB Foods or Fairfax Meadow.

Investigation

Last week the FSA and FSS announced an industry-wide review of cutting plants and cold stores following separate investigations into the meat sector.

“Serious issues” were found at Russell Hume and chicken supplier 2 Sisters, according to the food standards agencies.

The results of the review are to be made public later this month.

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