Isle of Man Meats has disposed of £40,000 worth of meat due to a failure at the government owned meat plant.
A piece of equipment failed, which resulted in frozen offall and held stock in a freezer being disposed of.
All the stock within the freezer had to go, as by law, stock must be held at minus 12 degrees or below.
Despite recent servicing of the freezer within the factory, the temperature rose to minus 5 degrees.
Which left IOM Meats with “no choice” but to dispose of the stock as it was not fit for human consumption, over the weekend of July 22.
Shelf Life
Isle of Man Meats says it “focuses on selling out fresh stock, and uses the freezer as necessary to prevent wastage from unsold stock that is close to end of shelf life”.
In a statement, Isle of Man Meats said: “Whilst waste occurs at each point in the chain across the food industry it is something that we strive to prevent, however legislation is in place to protect human health, and must take priority.”
Dumped Meat
This is not the first time Isle of Man Meats has dumped a large volume of meat.
In April, the Minister for Environment, Food, and Agriculture confirmed that 1859kg of Manx meat was disposed of at Isle of Man Meats since the beginning of the month.
Back in January, industry sources claimed that around seventy sides of beef, amounting to around £60,000 were sent to the animal waste plant to be destroyed.
People we spoke to claimed that the beef had been left to rot since mid December.
Breakdowns at Meat Plant
The meat plant has had numerous breakdowns this year which has resulted in the disposal of meat, as well as animals being held for long periods of time in the lairage area.
In February, a breakdown at the plant resulted in ten cattle being held for over a week in the lairage area.
In March, Isle of Man Meats held 45 cattle in the lairage area for five days, the holding of the animals was due to yet another machinery breakdown in the plant.
The cattle hoist encountered an “unexpected” malfunction during cattle processing on March 5.
Only a few weeks later on March 22, Manx.News also reported that there were 57 animals held in the lairage at the plant, which were due to be processed on March 19.
The reasoning behind this hold was due to a ‘malfunction in a computer part in a control panel’.
Meat Plant Troubles
Along with the breakdowns and disposal of meat, Isle of Man Meats has been called out by local producers and butchers for its lack of communication and lack of product.
In April, a local processor of Manx meat was forced to close it’s website down for a second time in just over a week, due to problems with meat supply.
Over the Easter weekend Andreas Meats and other local butchers, including one that makes pet food, took to social media to vent their frustration at regular Isle of Man Meat Plant failures.
They accused the plant of lacking a skilled workforce and having ‘No Leadership’.
Lack of Produce
In June, a local butcher took to social media to explain the difficulties he has faced in sourcing Manx meat from Isle of Man Meats.
After being let down multiple times by the meat plant, Lee Mayers felt that he’s been left with no other option than to bring meat in from across the Irish Sea.
Manx.News spoke to a number of butchers to understand where the issues arose from:
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