Bernard Matthews to sell meat after avian flu clearance

[AlaskaDenise]

The UK Food Standards Agency investigation into Avian flu (bird flu) has said that it has gathered sufficient information to conclude that product held temporarily in the Bernard Matthews cold stores at Holton and Chesterfield does not contain meat from a restricted zone in Hungary, which would have made it illegal to enter the food chain.

As a result, the Agency last night informed Bernard Matthews that the meat products held voluntarily in their cold stores for the past 48 hours can now be released into the food chain.

This information forms part of the joint report by the Department of Food and Rural Affairs, Food Standards Agency and Health Protection Agency which is in the process of being finalised and will be published at the end of the week.

Bernard Matthews, the founder of Britain's largest poultry firm, has today told consumers that his turkey products are safe to eat, despite the recent bird flu outbreak at one of his Suffolk farms.

http://www.spiritindia.com/health-care-news-articles-6606.html

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Bernard Matthews to sell meat after avian flu clearance

Verdict: Hungary found NOT GUILTY

15 Feb 2007


Following talks between Hungarian, EU and UK veterinary officials in Brussels, the EC said that the Hungarian authorities had dispelled the possibility that infected meat from restricted zones in southeast Hungary had been sent to Bernard Matthews' plants in other parts of Hungary.


<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> ImageUtils.showImage("", "", 146, 146); </SCRIPT>"No animals were sent to either slaughter house from the restricted zones since November 2006," said EU health spokesman Philip Tod. The European Commission said that the Hungarian authorities have not uncovered any evidence to link the recent bird flu outbreak on a turkey farm in Suffolk to meat from contaminated birds in Hungary.

However, the Commission was keen to point out that although the virus was most likely not transmitted through poultry meat, there was still a very clear link between the Hungarian strain and the one found in the UK earlier this month. Tod said there was still speculation about how the virus could have reached Suffolk, listing vehicles, manure, human contact with either feathers or birds and unlicensed trade among the many remaining possibilities.

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[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Bernard Matthews to sell meat after avian flu clearance

Sales at Bernard Matthews down 40 percent

LONDON (Reuters) - Sales at Bernard Matthews <MATB.L>, the poultry firm at the heart of the bird flu scare, has suffered a 40 percent drop in sales, BBC News reported on its Web site on Thursday.

But Bart Dalla Mura, commercial director at Europe's largest turkey producer, was quoted as saying the firm would recover.

"Consumers will see we've been honest and open and we're putting our trust in them to come back," he told BBC Look East.

The quotes were published on the BBC's Web site, which did not provide further details on the sales drop.

Bernard Matthews was not immediately available for comment.

The firm's owner, also called Bernard Matthews, said in comments published earlier on Thursday he was sorry for the H5N1 bird flu scare but insisted it was not his company's fault.

Bernard Matthews reopened a slaughterhouse this week in eastern England, near to a farm where 160,000 turkeys had been destroyed after the outbreak earlier in the month.

http://business.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=254132007

 

[HenryN]

Re: Bernard Matthews to sell meat after avian flu clearance

Report detail

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/birdfluinvest.pdf