Another meat plant named in food safety probe

A third meat processing plant in Belgium has been named in a major investigation by food safety inspectors - amid claims that rotten cuts of meat made their way into saucisson products for public sale.

Factories belonging to meat group Derwa were visited by food standards body Afsca on several occasions last year - and its Liège workshop La Vieille Abbaye was ordered to close. Management successfully appealed to a court for the order to be overturned, and production resumed.

RTBF has now published leaked inspection reports from La Vieille Abbaye. In one report, former owner Anne Derwa is quoted saying: "433kg of meat is missing and I cannot demonstrate how it's been used. It is possible that it has been used outside of its use-by date."

Afsca sources said they still had serious concerns about product traceability. Out-of-date ham cuts are only allowed to be used for animal feed. Derwa is now under new management, who told RTBF that they were working hard to ensure that any previous food safety lapses did not happen again.

Last month, Colruyt and Delhaize supermarket chains pulled hundreds of fresh and frozen beef and pork products from their shelves because of food safety concerns at the Veviba plant in Bastogne. Inspections by Afsca on 200 pallets of meat - mostly minced beef - found two thirds of the produce did not meet safety standards.

A second slaughterhouse - the Vanlommel veal production facility in Olen, Antwerp province - was also accused of trying to sell meat that was past its sell-by date.