Unfit meat scam 'may still be going on'

Criminal gangs trading in unfit meat have made millions of pounds by duping supermarket chains, schools and hospitals, and conning the public into eating potentially diseased food, police admitted today.

Although the scam operated by the Derbyshire-based ring to disguise condemned poultry and sell it as quality produce has been smashed, enforcement agencies admitted the practice may be continuing elsewhere.

The crooks were able to collect slaughterhouse waste at will, repackage it and claim a mark-up of more £1,400 per tonne by passing the meat off as fit for humans, Nottingham Crown Court heard during a 10-week trial.

They claimed to be pet food processors or reputable wholesalers and, in some cases, even marked the illicit meat with European health mark labels.

Health experts claim that the produce was likely to be riddled with disease, some of which could have proved fatal to elderly or infirm consumers.

Police carried out a major surveillance operation on the gang, centred in rat-infested company premises in Denby, Derbyshire, following an anonymous tip-off to environmental health officers in the county, uncovering a trail of deception that stretched back to 1995 and involved around 600 customers.

The scale of the fraud eclipsed that of a similar scandal in Rotherham, which caused massive public concern when seven men were convicted of supplying 1,000 tonnes of unfit chicken to the public in 2000.

Derbyshire detectives quickly learnt how Denby Poultry Products, a licensed pet food processor, bought in birds from large chicken and turkey slaughterhouses, transporting the produce back to their ramshackle premises in hired, maggot-ridden vans.

Once the birds had been filleted and had the most noticeable defects removed, the same filth-ridden vehicles were used to take the meat to wholesalers who were unaware of its history.

Disgusted lease companies said the vans were later impossible to clean properly, with some permanently stained with blood.

Denby Poultry had claimed that they wanted waste meat for their business producing pet food, despite the fact that much of it was fit only to be incinerated and used as fertiliser.

But horrified officers discovered that wholesalers who unwittingly bought Denby meat supplied to customers including Sainsbury's, Shippam's Pastes, Tesco, schools in Islington, hospitals and Bupa Care Homes.

Another destination for the rotten meat was the catering firm that served up food at Derbyshire Police headquarters in Ripley, Derbyshire - a short walk from the inquiry team office.

After uncovering the racket, police said that they urged the Food Standards Agency to issue warning notices, but despite the fact potential consumers included vulnerable people, the agency was reluctant to believe the true extent of deception in the food industry.

Product recalls were eventually made in April 2001 at a cost of in excess of £1 million.

Tesco and Farmfoods hastily pulled thousands of chicken steaks, chicken nuggets and burgers from deep-freeze cabinets, bought from Stoke-on-Trent based Perkins Frozen Foods, which had been supplied chicken by M.K Poultry in Northampton, a customer of Denby Poultry.

Sainsbury's was forced to destroy thousands of jars of own brand and Shippam's pastes and own brand pates, which may have been made with meat supplied by MK Poultry.

Other outlets which may have received poultry from Denby included English Rose Hotels, Kwik Save and scores of restaurants and takeaways.

The FSA said the recalls were purely "a precautionary measure", but officials confirmed that the public should not eat products which may have been produced with meat classed as unfit.

The police inquiry was unable to establish if anyone had suffered as a result of eating the condemned meat, but officers were angered by what they claimed was a lack of urgency in warning the public.

Detective Inspector Neil Perry, who led the inquiry, said: "The FSA were slow in reacting to what we had found and our inquiry was delayed by two months whilst we and Amber Valley Borough Council dealt with the public health issues.

"We were very disappointed and believe that it was their role to deal with that side of the investigation, not ours.

"It also took a great deal of time to convince people at the FSA that there was a need for a hazard warning."

Mr Perry headed a team of around six uniformed officers and four detectives and said that the scam revealed that criminals were keen to cash in on poor legislation and enforcement.

"The reason why this practice began is simple: the criminals saw an opportunity to exploit existing loopholes in regulations to put the unfit meat back into the food chain," said Mr Perry.

"In a sense, when you look at the figures, this is more profitable than drug trafficking. They were getting their raw material for free or at a low cost and selling it on for vast profits.

"It was allowed to happen because the slaughterhouses and food manufacturers could increase profits by selling on their waste products.

"Where they had previously paid £80 per tonne to have waste destroyed, these people came along and said they would pay up to £25 a tonne to take it away."

Although this raised the suspicions of some large companies, Denby Poultry was able to carry on despite being unlicensed to deal with high-risk waste.

Police analysts calculated that in cases where Denby did pay for the waste meat, they offered around £25 per tonne - selling it back into the human food chain for upwards of £1,500 per tonne.

Mr Perry said: "One of the problems was a lack of concern at what happens to waste meat and by-products.

"Much of the waste taken away wasn't accounted for, but our estimate is that 1.1 million pounds in weight of unfit poultry was sent out by Denby over five years."

The lack of true documentation meant that police can estimate only that the ringleaders at Denby Poultry made earnings of just over £800,000 in six years.

Criminal counterparts in Rotherham had netted an estimated £2.5 million from the same scam and police believe the real return on the Derbyshire-based fraud may also run into the millions.

During surveillance and a raid on premises in March 2001, officers also discovered that overheads at Denby were low, resulting in a disgusting working environment.

Poorly-paid workers toiled into the early hours seven days a week to fillet, trim and package chickens, turkeys and small amounts of red meat before the cuts were sold on to middlemen.

The premises were rat-infested and polluted with pools of sewage and standing water, staff aprons were often bloodstained and replaced only when they became threadbare.

Though three major prosecutions have been successful in the last four years, including the jailing of a Norfolk farmer for six months last October, police and health experts believe others may be continuing the fraud or ploting to resume the scam.

The Food Standards Agency's Waste Food Task Force, an independent committee set up in 2001 to examine the problem, has recommended greater information sharing between different agencies, but admitted new efforts may not be enough to stamp out the illicit trade.

"Diseased and contaminated food has been put into the human food chain, with potentially serious risks to public health," said task force chairman Andrew Hopkin, in a report published this January.

"Meat that has not been subject to the rigours of inspection and control, or worse has already been deemed unfit for human consumption, must not be allowed to enter the human food chain.

"The fact that this has happened, and may still be happening, has understandably undermined public confidence in food."

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