Legal News

West Sussex Trading Standards has prosecuted a meat wholesaler, after two butchers in the county were supplied with sheep meat instead of goat.

Forge Farm Meats Ltd of Tunbridge Wells in Kent has been ordered to pay more than £8,000 in fines and costs, after goat meat they supplied to two West Sussex butchers was found to be sheep.

The company pleaded guilty to two offences under the Food Safety Act for supplying misrepresented goat legs to the two butchers.

Following a customer complaint, Trading Standards officers covertly purchased 11 goat samples from West Sussex butchers and restaurants – a total of eight of these were found to be sheep meat, rather than goat.

After sentencing, West Sussex Trading Standards Team Manager, Peter Aston, said:

“Traceability and correct labelling is vital as once butchered, goat meat is very difficult to tell apart from mutton or lamb.

“Some of the sources of the meat tested traced back to a Spanish cutting plant, so as a result we are sharing information from our investigation with the Food Standards Agency and Spanish authorities.

“So far, our investigations into this fraud have led to two West Sussex butchers receiving cautions – and a meat supplier to the catering industry receiving a warning letter.”

West Sussex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Residents’ Services, David Barling, added:

“Our Trading Standards team have done a fantastic job acting on a consumer complaint.

“Not only were consumers misled by this dishonest act, but so were the local businesses involved, who purchased the meat in good faith.

“This sentencing serves as a reminder to those that are involved in falsely advertising and selling produce that we will find out – and we will make sure enforcement action is taken against you.”

West Sussex Trading Standards said that investigations were ongoing, to ensure all the businesses involved no longer sold any meat wrongly described or mislabelled.

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