FSA Food Alert (05/2006), 20 January 2006
During the inspection of the consignments of frozen meat and poultry seized from Euro Freeze (Ireland) Ltd boxes of frozen second joint chicken wings bearing a suspect illicit product description label and/or broken or damaged health marks have been found.
The health mark applied to these boxes is on a white label with two identical health marks side by side printed on it in one of the following formats:
The health mark number 9509 relates to the licensed establishment trading as O'Kane Poultry Ltd of Ballymena , Northern Ireland . Representatives from the company have confirmed that both formats of the above health mark are genuine. In addition they had confirmed that a product description label, which is not recognised by the company had been applied to the boxes of frozen second joint chicken wings.
All the boxes of second joint chicken wings bearing the suspect illicit product description label and broken or damaged health marks that have been examined have been found on boxes that had been sold by O'Kane Poultry Ltd and were no longer under their control.
Identification of the product
The product is packed in brown cardboard boxes, which are stated by the label to be 15 kg in weight. The box will bear the 9509 health mark in one of the above mentioned formats. On closer examination at least one of the health marks applied to the box may be broken or damaged. The suspect illicit product description label may be applied together with some or all of the genuine O'Kane labels.
The suspect illicit product description label does not appear on all boxes on which there is at least one broken and/or damaged health mark label.
Action to be taken by local authorities
If local authorities have coldstores within their district that may receive frozen poultry products they will need to visit the premises to establish if any of the suspected illicitly labelled frozen 2nd joint chicken wings are stored there. If the product bearing the suspect illicit label and/or the broken or damaged health mark is found it should be seized for condemnation under section 9 (3) (b) of the Food Safety Act 1990 on the basis that it does not comply with food safety requirements.
If, during the course of the visit, other poultry products bearing a broken or damaged 9509 health mark and/or displaying a product description label in the same format as the suspected illicit label are found, the product should be detained under Section 9 of the Food Safety Act 1990 on the basis that it does not appear to comply with food safety requirements and the Food Standards Agency should be notified immediately, as this information is required as part of an ongoing investigation.
All other local authorities should remain aware of the details of this suspect illicit product description label and broken and/or damaged 9509 health marks during the course of their normal duties.
It is essential that all non-unitary authorities liaise at county level to ensure that they take the necessary action.