E.coli abattoir had ‘lowest ever’ hygiene rating

Mar 18 2008 by Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail

THE abattoir which supplied E.coli butcher William Tudor was allowed to continue trading by politicians – despite receiving the lowest ever hygiene score in Great Britain.

The E.coli public inquiry yesterday heard that there was a catalogue of serious hygiene breaches – including faecal contamination of meat – at JE Tudor & Son’s abattoir in Treorchy, dating back at least 13 years before the deadly outbreak.

And a senior meat hygiene adviser, who recommended that the slaughterhouse should have been closed down in 1994, said the owners – Billy and Jonathan Tudor, the E.coli butcher’s uncle and cousin – had told officials they were going to do “****** all” to improve conditions at the plant, which was built in 1860.

But despite these problems, including the business receiving the lowest ever hygiene assessment score in Great Britain of just 11 out of 100, the then Secretary of State for Wales, John Redwood, decided not to revoke the licence in 1994.

David Thomas, the meat hygiene adviser who made the closure recommendation, said that political pressure during the 1990s meant the licensing system was “compromised” to help abattoirs stay in business.

A decade later – a year before the E.coli O157 outbreak which killed five-year-old schoolboy Mason Jones – JE Tudor & Son, run by Jonathan Tudor, was still operating.

Its hygiene assessment score had increased but there were similar serious problems with the structure of the building and poor hygiene and cleaning standards.

Paint and rust were flaking from the roof of the building and cleaning would be left for a week after slaughtering.

Mr Thomas told the inquiry he believed there was a policy in place in the 1990s that allowed under-performing slaughterhouses to be licensed even if they didn’t meet the requirements of the law, providing it was thought they could comply at some point in the future.

The message came from both the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food policy-makers and from the then Welsh Office, he said.

When asked by the inquiry’s senior counsel James Eadie whether this was a “total abuse of the legislative position”, Mr Thomas said, “I wasn’t happy, nor were my colleagues in England and Scotland. We knew what the standards were and, in my opinion, we were asked to compromise.

“In the case of Tudor’s establishment, if I reported back that there was a possibility of this plant complying, then it makes it more difficult to try and revoke a licence later in the future because the politicians who were pulling the strings at that time, would look at the report and say, ‘Give Tudor every chance to try and comply’.”

He added the policy of the time was, “We were told to give them every chance to stay in business and find solutions to do that. It is not a situation that I’m proud of. If it was up to me I would have shut a lot more down.”

A series of inspections between 1992 and 1994 found serious hygiene problems. But despite these, JE Tudor & Son – which was slaughtering 700 cattle, 1,000 sheep and 1,500 pigs a year – was awarded a temporary licence by the Secretary of State to allow him “put his house in order”.

Even though no improvements were made, he was eventually granted a permanent licence by the Welsh Secretary in the face of recommendations that the business be shut down.

By 2005, JE Tudor & Son was operating one-and-a-half days a week, killing four cattle, up to 30 pigs and 70 sheep a week.

Mr Thomas said that in 2005, “It was my opinion that the establishment could not be approved in its current condition unless a substantial amount of work was undertaken and some of the operational practices improved.”

The inquiry will continue hearing about the Meat Hygiene Service’s inspections of JE Tudor & Son today

Appraisal for new EU rules highlighted long-standing problems

JE Tudor & Son was allowed to continue operating as a “low-throughput” slaughterhouse into the 21st Century, despite the long-standing hygiene and structural problems.

In 2005, it was appraised by inspectors to determine whether it would comply with new EU Food Hygiene Regulations, which came into force in 2006. Although not an official inspection, experts found similar problems at the abattoir, including:

Contamination of meat from flaking paint and rust from the ceiling;

Hygiene facilities not deemed adequate;

No protection of meat from all forms of contamination, including dirt, dust and flies; and

Major structural and layout problems.

Jonathan Tudor decided to voluntarily close the Treorchy business in 2006 because of the cost of upgrading the slaughterhouse to bring it up to standard.

Filth, flies, and contamination issues were exposed in 1990s

Numerous inspections of JE Tudor & Son were carried out between 1992 and 1994 to check the abattoir’s compliance with two different sets of regulations.

The legislation was introduced in response to European directives. Slaughterhouses were expected to comply with both the hygiene and structural requirements, although licences were issued on the basis that businesses had a plan in place to make alterations to the fabric of their premises. The 1990s’ inspections found:

Unhygienic practices and lack of sterilisation of implements, including knives;

Carcasses in the chillers showed contamination;

Slaughtermen were transferring faecal contamination onto carcasses;

Large number of flies present on exposed meat;

Filthy equipment; and

Walls and fittings in the slaughter hall were dirty.