Preston abattoir Dunbia fined £250,000 over food safety flouts

An abattoir broke laws designed to protect the public from rare neurodegenerative illnesses linked to eating meat.
By Stef Hall
Published 26th Mar 2019, 12:57 GMT
Updated 26th Mar 2019, 14:03 GMT
Preston Crown CourtPreston Crown Court
Preston Crown Court

The Food Standards Agency launched a prosecution after a visit to Dunbia (Preston) Limited, which has an abattoir on Church Road, Bamber Bridge, in April 2017.

Preston Crown Court heard two sheep heads with exposed teeth were “presented for human consumption” at the firm’s post mortem inspection point.

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It marked a flout of the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (England) Regulations brought into force in 2010.

Preston Crown CourtPreston Crown Court
Preston Crown Court

The court also heard inspectors found a spleen was not fully removed from a sheep carcass on April 6, 2017.

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Preston meat firm faces food safety charge brought under legislation to protect ...

The company, of Granville Road, Dungannon, Ireland, indicated guilty pleas to three counts of failing to comply with a requirement to remove all specified risk material, during an earlier hearing before Blackpool Magistrates’ Court.

The case had been committed to Preston Crown Court, where Judge Andrew Woolman made a judgement ordering the company to pay £249,999 in three installments.

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Special public health measures were implemented to tackle human and animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) - a family of rare progressive neurodegenerative disorders, which include CJD.

Variant CJD is linked to consuming meat from a cow infected with a disease called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The most infectious parts are thought to be the brain and spinal cord.