FSA update on Russell Hume

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has taken action to stop any product from leaving sites operated by Russell Hume because of concerns about non-compliance with food hygiene regulations. These concerns were uncovered as the result of an unannounced audit at one site which then led to a wider investigation in the following days across all their plants and also into products held in cold stores.

Based on the evidence gathered, the FSA became concerned that there was a more systemic and widespread problem which was more serious in terms of its scale and nature. It was only at this stage that issues of serious non-compliance were uncovered. These related to a number of issues including concerns about procedures and processes around ‘use by’ dates. There is no indication that people have become ill from eating meat supplied by Russell Hume.

The FSA investigation is taking a proportionate approach based on the findings, and is working in partnership with Food Standards Scotland (FSS) to do this.

As a result of these further investigations which highlighted the serious issues of non-compliance, Russell Hume has been required to stop all production at the plants and detain all products. The agencies then worked with the company to initiate a voluntary recall of all affected products. Until the business can provide assurances that they are complying with the relevant legislation and that they are producing safe food, no meat can leave their sites.

Source: FSA News Release, 26 January 2018 

The FSS have also released a statement on this subject.