Loscoe administrators support meat investigation

Administrators overseeing the closure of a firm suspected of supplying processed meat wrongly labelled as British have said they will support an ongoing fraud investigation.

Loscoe Chilled Foods, near Heanor, Derbyshire, made 120 staff redundant last month ahead of the appointment of advisory firm FRP.

It follows an ongoing probe by the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU).

Three people have been arrested and released under investigation.

Loscoe Chilled Foods has been approached for comment.

Steven Ross and Allan Kelly of FRP were appointed as joint administrators to Loscoe Chilled Foods Limited on 3 April.

Mr Ross said their focus was on "formally winding down the operations" of the company "and preparing for an asset sale", but added they were "engaging" with the NFCU.

"[We] will provide any assistance to support their investigations," he said.

"In the meantime, we have a team working with impacted staff to assist with making [redundancy] claims."

The NFCU previously said pre-packed meat and deli products that had come from South America and Europe before being supplied to supermarket Booths had been labelled as British.

An investigation into suspected food fraud was launched in September 2021, and a site visit at Loscoe was carried out in March.

Booths said a "limited number" of cooked meat lines were removed from sale in 2021, adding fresh meat was unaffected and the supermarket was "categorically not under investigation by the NFCU".

A spokesman said: "Issues of provenance, traceability, honesty and authenticity are of the highest importance to Booths and the business has been fully co-operating with and supporting the work of the NFCU for the past 18 months."