Cleaning up a rotten meat industry

Date: 28/04/05

Following Poland's accession to the EU a year ago, the Polish food industry stormed markets with considerable success. The sale of Polish food products increased by 60% from the level before accession.

Earlier concerns that Polish food manufacturers would not be able to meet EU standards seemed a thing of the past and a majority of companies managed to obtain the required certificates to export to the EU market. It looked like they had done their homework. But then the scandal broke.

In the blinking light of a hidden camera, one can see an employee of a Constar meat-processing plant from Starachowice showing his newly employed colleague a large sausage covered with mould. He is unaware that the woman is an undercover TV reporter. Asked what will happen to the contaminated meat, he answers that it needs to be cleaned with oil in order to remove the white coating, repacked and sent back to the shops. "But it stinks," says the woman. "Nobody will detect any smell under the foil. Once sold, out of mind. You see, profits do count," answers the man.

There is a unit in the plant printing new labels for the 're-processed' meat. The spoilt food is provided with a new use-by expiry date and goes into the shops.

Constar is one of the leading Polish food manufacturers and processors. It used to sell its products in most big supermarket chains in Poland and exported them to shops all over Europe. The firm is part of US food giant Smithfield Foods Inc. Once the scandal broke, stores emptied their shelves of the firm's food. The UK's Tesco assessed the initial drop in profits at about €40,000. French chain E. Leclerc withdrew almost two tonnes of meat from the market. The wounds may be much deeper, however, since consumers declare en masse their growing lack of confidence in food sold in supermarkets.

The workers from Constar are insisting that they became victims of a media provocation. They proclaim a fierce battle for their jobs. There are not too many potential employers in Starachowice where the unemployment rate reaches 20%. During a press conference, the company management tried to minimise the significance of the press revelations. A few days later, however, the Regional Veterinary Inspectorate from Kielce confirmed that meat with its sell-by date expired had been stored in the factory. The District Attorney launched a probe, the police entered the factory and the packing department was sealed. Constar's chief executive was sacked and the county vet was suspended. Those responsible for the misdeeds face imprisonment.

The Constar case is not the only evidence of an alarming situation in the Polish food sector. Controllers from Brussels visited several Polish creameries and meat manufacturing plants in September 2004. The control revealed significant irregularities. After the inspection two enterprises were closed and the veterinarians increased checks on the conditions in which Polish butcheries were operating. More than 900 slaughterhouses have been inspected recently.

In more than half of 320 slaughterhouses manufacturing pork and beef, irregularities were found. All those firms had licences permitting them to send their products to the EU markets. The situation was similar in those plants that sold meat on the national market. Oversights were detected in the work of 377 butcheries out of 670 inspected. Two-thirds of the controlled enterprises did not meet the basic sanitary regulations. 56 of them will be closed. In the coming weeks the inspectors plan to control slaughterhouses processing poultry.

Most of the problems with Polish slaughterhouses concern the conditions the livestock are kept in, in particular the implementation of the system of control points, the points at which animal products may be easily infected by micro-organisms.

In the EU, a system of criminal sanctions for the lack of implementation of the critical control points system has been set up but there are no such regulations in Poland so far.

"By the end of 2006 we wish to eliminate all irregularities in slaughterhouses," says Krzysztof Jazdzewski, Poland's chief vet.

This aim may remain wishful thinking. In order to achieve the EU goal of yearly inspection covering about 10% of the farms, the National Vet Inspectorate would have to employ 700 additional inspectors. But its budget is being permanently reduced.

The information on how Constar was breaching sanitary norms reached Brussels promptly. The European Commission asked for explanations from the Polish government and Poland may even face a temporary export ban.

The EU Veterinary Agency will certainly remember the scandal when its inspectors visit Poland later this year. Several companies could lose their EU certificates then.

The greatest hurdle for the sector, however, will be to restore consumers' confidence in the meat products 'Made in Poland'. It may take some time.

• Wieslav Horabik is a freelance journalist based in Poland.

Article reports that Polish consumers declare their growing lack of confidence in food sold in supermarkets after media uncovered the repackaging and relabelling of spoilt food by Constar, one of the leading Polish food manufacturers and processors. The company, part of US food giant Smithfield Foods Inc., used to sell its products in most big supermarket chains in Poland and exported them to shops all over Europe until the scandal. Author says that EU officials were repeatedly encountering irregularities in Polish slaughterhouses and the the country was to face closer inspections from the European Union in the future.