Nottingham-based food company Muscle Food has recalled more than 60 of its meat products after an inspection uncovered problems with use-by dates.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) inspected the company’s supplier and sister company DB Foods unannounced and found the ‘use-by-dates on some products were not compliant with legal requirements’.
Muscle Food is a company in Park Lane, Basford, which supplies lean meat, high-protein foods and sport nutrition supplements. It issued a voluntary recall of 64 of its meat products following the action.
The company supplies meat products through its website directly to the public and says it is contacting all of its affected customers to make them aware.
Founder of Muscle Food Darren Beale said: “I wanted to firstly apologise to anybody that was affected by our recent precautionary product recall, which was on a small number of products, caused by a supplier mistake on the use by dates.
“The team and I take our responsibilities incredibly seriously and although on a daily basis we are offered products from a variety of suppliers, we vet and choose our suppliers very carefully.
“In this case our supplier was a British Retail Consortium AA rated supplier; the highest rating you can achieve in the industry, with an excellent pedigree of supplying multinational companies.
“The moment they realised their mistake, they informed us and we informed you.”
The FSA said the company’s response was proportionate and issued a full list of the products affected – which should not be eaten.
Mr Beale added: “They (the supplier) have let us down and although the Muscle Food team quality check thousands of items every day – use some of the UK’s best known suppliers and care passionately about ensuring product quality – we have let you down too, sorry.
“You putting your trust in Muscle Food is a huge honour for me and the team and even just one precautionary recall compared to supermarkets’ hundreds a year, is one too many.”
A statement from DB Foods, based in Poole, said: “Following a routine inspection from Food Standards Agency (FSA), an isolated error in the use by date labelling for a small number of our products was identified, which has now been remedied.
“Products were labelled with a use by date beyond the 10 days recommended by FSA.
“Only one of our customers received the mislabeled batch of products; our sister company Muscle Food.
“We immediately notified them and Muscle Food has contacted all affected customers to implement a precautionary product recall.
“It is important to note that while both companies are part of the wider DB Food Group, they are run independently of each other and have no shared functions.
“As a British Retail Consortium AA rated supplier, we welcome the Food Standards Agency’s inspections across the industry.
“We have worked closely with them throughout this process and are pleased to report that FSA has identified no further issues.
“As this was a small, isolated incident, our wider distribution has not been impacted and all operations continue as normal.
“DB Foods has an excellent record in safety and takes pride in the quality of its products. We will continually work to ensure that this quality is not compromised.”
