Loscoe Chilled Foods revealed to be supplier involved in beef fraud investigation
20th March 2023
Derbyshire-based meat supplier Loscoe Chilled Foods has confirmed it is part of the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) investigation concerning cooked meat and deli products being mislabelled as British on Booths supermarket shelves.
Stock photo for illustration purposes only.
The supplier told The Sun newspaper last week it was “working with the FSA [Food Standards Agency] to assist in a supply chain investigation and to establish the possibility that South American corned beef may have passed through one of our slicing sites in March 2021”.
According to an FSA report published in late 2022, the investigation, first launched in 2021 under the name ‘Operation Hawk’, was aimed at the directors of a company “responsible for selling large volumes of pre-packed meat products to a UK supermarket retailer, who pride themselves on only selling British products”.
Loscoe director Daniel Ryde told The Grocer the incident with Booths was an “isolated issue concerning sliced corned beef supplied to a single customer” and that “there is no suggestion that any other customers are affected”.
“Nonetheless we take this very seriously and are fully supporting the FSA with its work,” he added.
On 10th March, northern supermarket chain Booths confirmed it is the retailer involved in the scandal, saying it ‘acted instantly’ to remove all relevant products from the shelf and ceased trading with the supplier upon being made aware of potential food fraud.
The retailer also emphasized it is not under investigation by the NFCU and will continue to uphold its ‘British-only meat commitment’, with the exception of meat products affected by the issue in 2021.
While NFCU deputy head Andrew Quinn confirmed the case is not an issue of food safety but of food fraud, the investigation sparked fears over the integrity of meat supply chains and cheap imports undermining the hard work of British farmers and food processors.
Mr Quinn commented: “Any fraud investigations of this nature take time to go through evidence and bring to any outcome, including any potential prosecution. We take food fraud very seriously and are acting urgently to protect the consumer.”
