Telford chicken firm is named in claims over meat hygiene
A chicken company with a major plant in Telford today defended its record after three of the UK's major supermarkets launched investigations into over alleged meat hygiene issues.
The allegations relate to two of the largest UK poultry processors, Faccenda, which has a plant at Hortonwood, and 2 Sisters Food Group, which has a base in West Bromwich.
Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer confirmed they had launched investigations into their chicken sources.
It follows claims that not enough is being done to prevent the campylobacter bug from getting into the food chain.
Although cooking kills the bug, it is responsible for more than 300,000 cases of food poisoning and 15,000 hospitalisations a year in England and Wales.
Faccenda this week announced a major expansion of its chicken processing plant in Telford. About 300 new jobs will be created at the Hortonwood plant as part of a 100,000 sq ft expansion of the factory.
Faccenda Foods managing director Andy Dawkins said: "Our investment in current projects to tackle campylobacter is in excess of £1 million. Faccenda Foods is fully committed to a programme of process and product improvements and believe these will result in real improvements in food safety for consumers."
In a statement on its website, 2 Sisters Food Group refuted claims made by the Guardian newspaper, adding: "Allegations about our processing sites at Scunthorpe and Llangefni concerning our business and our management of campylobacter are untrue, misleading and inaccurate. There is no campylobacter contamination or problems at our sites, as confirmed by multiple independent external audits and our own rigorous testing."
A Tesco spokeswoman said: "Providing safe food is our first priority, so we take these allegations of poor practice against one of our suppliers extremely seriously, and have launched an immediate investigation."
