Bernard Mathews food scare

A local pub, The Golden Fleece has a new sign up behind the bar which reassures restaurant customers that no Bernard Mathews products are used in their kitchen.

Funny how a couple of weeks ago the giant turkey factory was being praised for its tight biosecurity, but now the facts are coming out and the damage limitation excercise is looking very shaky.

Incredibly, it now seems that the company had been importing turkey meat from nearby the bird flu outbreak in Hungary, and then leaving bits of it around in the open air, right next to the largest concentration of turkey rearing sheds in Europe.

TimesOnline
Matthews could be prosecuted over hygiene at bird flu factory

Bernard Matthews could face prosecution over sloppy biosecurity at the Holton factory in Suffolk where the avian flu virus infected turkey chicks and 160,000 birds had to be destroyed.
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Problems with gulls feeding from open waste bins was first raised with Bernard Matthews management last year by its own firm of pest controllers. They had also identified holes and openings in rearing sheds that could easily allow a bird or a rodent to mix with chicks and for water or bird droppings to get into enclosed units.

Meat Hygiene Service records also reveal that inspectors issued warnings about a range of “deficiencies and noncompliance”. Though not specified, they are also related to possible breaches of animal byproduct regulations.

Bernard Matthews was served another warning last month about problems on the site. Pest control reports on January 10 and January 24 noted that gulls were carrying meat scraps half a kilometre away and then roosting on the top of the farm sheds. Poly-thene bags containing meat products and residual liquids were also thrown into the open bins and were easily blown across the site. Birds or rats may also have infected wood shavings that are stored outdoors and used to refresh bedding inside the sheds.

Bernard Matthews loses sales | Telegraph

One of the biggest ongoing surveys of consumer confidence yesterday revealed that Bernard Matthews was now the least respected and trusted brand in Britain.

Whilst extending sympathy for the plight of portuguese TGWU members in East Anglia, it really couldn’t have happened to a nicer brand – Bernard Mathews – the people who created the market for feeding schoolchildren with disgusting cheap junk food in the shape of golden drummers, turkey dinosaurs, and twizzlers.