Facebook Twitter Instagram
    • FREE Email Newsletters
    • About Us
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • FREE Magazine Subscriptions
    Twitter LinkedIn
    Podcast
    Poultry News
    • Production
      • Broiler Production
      • Ducks
      • Egg Production
      • Game
      • Hatching
      • Housing
      • Turkeys
    • Processing
    • Business & Politics
      • Business
      • Economics
      • EU & Politics
      • Marketing
      • People
      • Training & Education
    • Welfare
      • Environment
      • Food Safety
      • Vet & Medication
      • Welfare
    • Feed
    • Genetics
    • New Products
    • Magazines
      1. July 2022
      2. June 2022
      3. May 2022
      4. April 2022
      5. February 2022
      6. January 2022
      Featured

      Protected: Poultry Business – August 2022

      By Michael BarkerJuly 26, 2022
      Recent

      Protected: Poultry Business – August 2022

      July 26, 2022

      Protected: Health Supplement 2022

      July 25, 2022

      Protected: Poultry Business – July 2022

      June 28, 2022
    • Jobs
      • Browse Jobs
      • Post a Job
      • Manage Jobs
    • Events
      • National Egg and Poultry Awards
      • Poultry Fair
    Poultry News
    News

    2 Sisters publishes audit data in attempt to reassure public following new Guardian claims

    Chloe RyanBy Chloe RyanDecember 19, 20175 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email

    The Guardian has published new allegations about practices about standards at 2 Sisters’ poultry processing plants, two months after an original slew of claims forced the temporary closure of the firm’s West Bromwich plant.

    The newspaper claimed in a story published late on 19 December that standards at 2 Sisters’ Coupar Angus plant in Scotland breached a number of requirements set by its customer Tesco, which caused the retailer to grade the supplier as ‘red’, requiring improvement.

    According to The Guardian, the Tesco audit documents state that the problems found at 2 Sisters’ Coupar Angus plant included:

    • Organic and non-organic chickens being mixed – with “insufficient evidence to support [corrective actions] and end product fate”.
    • A computer system that allowed all factory workers “to change UB [use-by] dates”.
    • “Several instances … of double labelling/no labelling”.
    • “Serious issues” with records designed to account for chickens earmarked for disposal, with auditors concluding “the site cannot fully demonstrate which products have been sent to waste”.
    • “Failed” efforts to trace chicken recorded as being despatched from the plant.

    A spokesperson for 2 Sisters told The Guardian that neither the mixed organic and standard chicken, nor poultry earmarked for disposal, had been despatched to customers. The company added it does not supply standard chicken as organic and that the crates of meat auditors had failed to trace had not entered the food chain.

    2 Sisters added that the problems date back two months to the time immediately following the original allegations relating to the West Bromwich site, when Tesco decided to conduct audits on all the plants that supplied it. “ITV and the Guardian are referring to standard inspection audits and appear to be trying to damage the reputation of our factories and potentially the livelihoods of 23,000 colleagues by misrepresenting them. There is and never was any risk to food safety at Coupar Angus. This is using old news to highlight issues which were resolved with our customer two months ago.”

    In response, 2 Sisters said it had decided to publish all its audit and inspection reports from its customers and regulatory bodies. 

    “We will be the first in the industry to do this and we hope this bold step will allow us to work with regulators, standard owners and customers to develop a system for all to use,” said a spokesman.

    How Audits and Inspections Work

    Audits and inspections are carried out by a number of organisations, they are all seeking to make sure that the way the firm operates meets the requirements of their organisation. Some of these are common but there are differences and some instances they will be seeking to check on specifics unique to their organisation. 

    The FSA and Local Authorities provide regulation at the national and local level. Their focus is to make sure that businesses comply with the law.  It is the firm’s legal responsibility to produce safe food. They are audited by standard bodies such as BRC Global Standards, Red Tractor and the Soil Association. They check that the business meets the requirements of their schemes. In addition, customers carry out audits and inspections to make sure businesses are meeting their requirements which may in some cases go beyond those of the standard bodies.  Each of these bodies will look at similar areas of activity and control within operations but from a different perspective and focus.

    Recent Audit and Inspection history

    Since 1 July 2017 to end November 2017 there have been 150 Audits / Inspections in 2 Sisters’ chicken processing sites, 114 were unannounced, 36 announced. These have identified a number of areas where improvement is needed but no food safety issues. 107 of these audits / inspections are since the Guardian / ITN investigation.

    During 96 of those audits, non-conformances were notified to 2SFG. These are detailed below graded into three areas; where there was actual food safety or legality issues, where the system or process is not good enough and there could be a risk and finally where the firm could do things more effectively.

     

    Site Latest BRC Grade Audits and Inspections Food Safety or Legal Issue System or process
    requiring improvement
    System or process
    could be improved
            Raised Still Open Raised Still Open
    Coupar Angus A+ 16 0 11 0 54 3
    Flixton A+ 12 0 9 1 29 3
    Llangefni AA 12 0 3 0 34 0
    Sandycroft A+ 16 0 14 1 53 2
    Scunthorpe A+ 16 0 10 0 53 0
    Site C A+ 13 0 4 0 16 0
    Site D A 28 0 4 0 70 5
    Site E A 13 0 5 1 68 7
    Witham A+ 5 0 0 0 44 3
    Willand A 19 0 2 0 54 0
    Total   150 0 62 3 475 23

     

    • Non-conformances are closed out (resolved) once remedial action has been put in place to address the risk or issue identified. Often short-term action on the day, solves the issue quickly but we only consider it fully completed once we have identified and addressed the root cause of the issue.
    • BRC grades audits from AA to D, the plus indicates that it is an unannounced audit. All our sites are now in the unannounced programme.
    • Average number of non-conformances raised by site during an audit / inspection 3.6
    • Average number of non-conformances still open 0.02 per audit, per site.
    • None of the non-conformances identified food safety issues.

     

    A spokesman added: “2SFG produces safe food every day. We always seek to operate in a way that fully meets the expectations of our customers and regulators whilst continuously improving our operation. These audits / inspections, the insight they give us and the remedial action taken is an important part in the continuous improvement cycle.”

    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
    Previous ArticleFeature: How Faccenda is swapping antibiotics for oregano oil – and winning the fight against bacteria on farms
    Next Article Whole eggs promote muscle building, according to new research
    Chloe Ryan

    Editor of Poultry Business, Chloe has spent the past decade writing about the food industry from farming, through manufacturing, retail and foodservice. When not working, dog walking and reading biographies are her favourite hobbies.

    Read Similar Stories

    News

    Italy passes law to ban male chick culling

    August 15, 2022
    New Products

    New feed supplement launched

    August 12, 2022
    Feed & Nutrition

    The potential of beans in poultry diets

    August 11, 2022
    Most Read

    Italy passes law to ban male chick culling

    August 15, 2022

    Worst ever avian flu outbreak continues with four new cases confirmed in Devon in past week

    August 15, 2022

    Technical advice: Controlling Salmonella in laying hens

    August 15, 2022
    © 2022 Lewis Business Media. All Rights Reserved.
    Lewis Business Media, Suite A, Arun House, Office Village, River Way, Uckfield, TN22 1SL

    Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Terms & Conditions

    • AA Farmer
    • Farm Contractor
    • Pig World
    • OvertheCounter

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “ACCEPT ALL”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsREJECT ALLAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
    CookieDurationDescription
    AWSALBCORS7 daysThis cookie is managed by Amazon Web Services and is used for load balancing.
    cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary1 yearSet by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Necessary" category .
    PHPSESSIDsessionThis cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
    Others
    Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
    CookieDurationDescription
    AWSALB7 daysAWSALB is a cookie generated by the Application load balancer in the Amazon Web Services. It works slightly different from AWSELB.
    explat_test_aa_weekly_lohp_2021_week_4517 days 8 hoursNo description
    ppwp_wp_session30 minutesNo description
    tk_ai14 daysGathers information for WordPress by themselves, first party analytics tool about how WP services are used. A collection of internal metrics for user activity, used to improve user experience.
    tk_qssessionGathers information for WordPress by themselves, first party analytics tool about how WP services are used. A collection of internal metrics for user activity, used to improve user experience.
    Advertisement
    Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
    CookieDurationDescription
    OAGEOsessionOpenX sets this cookie to avoid the repeated display of the same ad.
    OAID1 yearThis cookie is set when an AdsWizz website visitor have opted out the collection of information by AdsWizz service or opted to disable the targeted ads by AdsWizz.
    Analytics
    Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
    CookieDurationDescription
    _ga2 yearsThe _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
    _gat_gtag_UA_31822138_71 minuteSet by Google to distinguish users.
    _gid1 dayInstalled by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
    tk_lr1 yearThe tk_lr is a referral cookie set by the JetPack plugin on sites using WooCommerce, which analyzes referrer behaviour for Jetpack.
    tk_or5 yearsThe tk_or is a referral cookie set by the JetPack plugin on sites using WooCommerce, which analyzes referrer behaviour for Jetpack.
    tk_r3d3 daysJetPack installs this cookie to collect internal metrics for user activity and in turn improve user experience.
    SAVE & ACCEPT
    Powered by CookieYes Logo