17K fine; UK hog roast company fined over smelly slime covered decaying meat at Boardmasters

A hog roast company from London has pleaded guilty at Truro Magistrates Court to selling unfit meat at the Boardmasters event in August 2012 and has been ordered to pay a fine of £6,750, costs of £10,418.40 and £120 victim surcharge.

pig-ready-on-spitOfficers from Cornwall Council’s food and safety team discovered five pig carcasses in the trailer belonging to Rainha Santa Portuguese Foods Ltd, a company based at 39 Mahatma Gandhi Industrial Estate, Milkwood Road, London SE24 0JF, that were in a “state of decay”.

A further carcass was being cooked on the spit at the time of the inspection. It later transpired that the pigs had been transported to Cornwall without adequate refrigeration and this is likely to have been an influencing factor to the smell and slime observed when the officers inspected the carcasses and immediately removed them from sale.