Politics
Beef Recall Was ‘Precautionary’
That is according to DEFA Minister Clare Barber who was asked on the matter in the House of Keys this week.
A decision made by Isle of Man Meats to recall beef stock earlier this month was not made lightly.
That is according to DEFA Minister Clare Barber who was asked on the matter in the House of Keys this week.
Between Christmas and early January, Isle of Man Meats had experienced a packaging machine breakdown that caused some delays in production while waiting for specialist engineers to arrive on island to repair the equipment.
Mrs Barber said that the delays resulted in some beef stock being kept longer than usual. She added: ‘An operational decision was made on the basis of high quality and food safety to dispose of the remaining stock.
In addition it was decided to recall a small amount of beef product from customers.’
This, she said, was taken as a precautionary measure.
But Douglas North MHK, John Wannenburgh, said: ‘For an animal to be reared, slaughtered, and then simply thrown away is not a situation any of us should condone.’
He asked for assurances that no malicious administration has taken place.
Mrs Barber said: ‘In terms of any malicious practice, we do know that there were issues with machinery.
‘The root cause of that failure is yet to be determined but a full investigation into that is continuing and I can assure honourable members that any concerns that have been raised have been reported to the authorities.’
She said that there were no consumer returns registered and therefore no refunds.
Mrs Barber, as minister, has been on the board of directors of the company since 2022, but is now preparing to step away.
