Scathing criticism of QK Meats and Ossory abattoir

Brian Leslie interviewed managing director of K+S UK & Eire Ltd, Richard Pinner, to hear his views on the Irish fertilizer industry

20 March 2013

Scathing criticism of QK Meats and Ossory abattoir

"The Department’s report shows how QK Meats failed to notify the authorities of these positive equine DNA results"

QK Meats, a subsidiary of Waterford-based Arrow Group, came in for strong criticism in the Department of Agriculture’s report into equine DNA scandal for failing to notify the authorities of their own positive testing results as far back as last June.QK Meats sourced meat products from 19 different Polish suppliers over a prolonged period and these stocks were stored at its sister company, QK Cold Stores, in Naas.

QK Meats sourced meat products from 19 different Polish suppliers over a prolonged period and these stocks were stored at its sister company, QK Cold Stores, in Naas.

The Department’s report shows how QK Meats failed to notify the authorities of these positive equine DNA results even when the Department was publicly investigating the matter and even though such an admission would have lead to a quicker unearthing of the source of the horsemeat.

The Department’s report accuses QK Meats’ senior management of showing scant regard for the public good.

The plant remains under investigation.

QK Meats is owned by the Arrow Group, as is Dawn Fresh Foods, the Tipperary-based subsidiary of Arrow Group.

Food chain

QK Meats emphasised this week that none of the equine positive raw material entered the food chain, but the Department’s report revealed how the firm admitted that it continued to source raw material from Poland while being aware of the suspect nature of these consignments.

Meanwhile, operations at Ossory Meats have been suspended as a result of the Department’s investigation.

The equine DNA report revealed that on one day – 8 March 2013 – some 25 horses presented for slaughtering had irregularities in respect to their passports and microchip identifiers.

In other cases, horses presented as yearlings were much older.

Ossory Meats was set up in January 2010 by Laois beef farmer Pat Hayes and acquired an abattoir licence to slaughter horses exclusively under the local authority scheme from Offaly County Council.

This slaughtering is supervised by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland as distinct from the licences granted by the Department of Agricultural to export meat plants.

The company’s slaughtering operations have been suspended.

The most recent set of accounts for Ossory Meats show the business generated profits of €40,794 for year ending December 2011 and Pat Hayes personally sold €102,600 worth of bloodstock to the company during that trading period.