Erin Farm to move plant from pig farm

MANAGEMENT Executives of Erin Meat Packers Limited have announced several initiatives to prevent a re-occurrence of a deadly bacteria being found in several packaged meat products and which prompted a recall of these products from supermarket shelves over the past week. The company was forced to recall three of its top-selling brands-Chicken Franks, Spiced Ham and Turkey Ham, after traces of the bacteria Lysteria Monocytogenes, was discovered to have contaminated certain batches of these meat products. During a press conference held at Cara Suites, Claxton Bay yesterday, managing director Rupert Leong Poi said that while the company had the “most stringent temperature control systems in place,” preliminary investigations seemed to indicate that the close proximity of the meat processing plant to a pig farm, may have caused the contamination of the meat products.

“Research into the Lysteria bacteria has shown that pigs are among the animals which carry the bacteria and one theory, yet untested, is that there may have been some type of ventilation breach at the plant which permitted some bacterial entry and contamination,” Leong Poi said. He added that one solution was to move the plant away from the pig farm, and revealed that the company had already identified a possible site some two-to-three miles north of the existing facility. When asked about the time period involved, Leong Poi said the company anticipated the move would take approximately one year. However, he also said the company expected to resume operations at the facility as soon as a “Certificate of Clearance” was issued by the Ministry of Health’s Food and Drug Division and UWI’s Veterinary Public Health Laboratory. “We expect to get back the test results on Monday and we expect them to be negative. So once we receive the Certificate of Clearance, we will once again resume operations,” Leong Poi said.

He also stated that both institutions had recently toured the plant and “expressed satisfaction with the safety measures” in place by the company. Also attending the press conference was director/processing plant manager Ronald Leong Poi, who was asked whether the company had complied an estimate of losses due to the recall and subsequent plant closure. Leong Poi said while the company did not have a definite figure, he estimated losses caused by the recall of the contaminated products to be $250,000 “and rising.” The plant employs some sixty workers and has over forty products on the market. However, Leong Poi (Rupert) noted that the company had advised supermarkets to “give a full refund to customers.”