Big supermarket chain investigated for selling ‘fake British beef’ confirmed
UPMARKET supermarket Booths – sometimes called the Waitrose of the North – is the retailer at the centre of a fake British beef scandal, The Sun can reveal.
It emerged this week that a supermarket was being targeted by a food fraud squad after selling South American beef as “best British”.
Booths told The Sun that it “can confirm that they have been working closely and cooperatively with the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) since being made aware of potential food fraud issues in 2021.”
Booths, which remains family-owned after starting in Blackpool in 1847, has 27 shops across the North West of England and is very popular with visitors to the Lake District.
The scandal has stunned the food industry as it comes a decade after the horse meat scandal in 2013 when burgers and ready-meals were found to contain 100 percent horse meat.
Speculation has run rife about which retailer has been caught up in this mis-labelling of beef scandal.
The Sun revealed yesterday that Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, Iceland, Waitrose and Lidl had all confirmed it was not them involved.
A Booths spokesperson said that the investigation “relates to a limited selection of cooked meat products and Booths have no knowledge of any other aspects of the investigation.
“At the point of being made aware of the potential issues in 2021 Booths acted instantly, removing all relevant products from sale and ceased trading with the supplier with immediate effect.
“Booths would like to confirm that fresh meat, poultry and game products are entirely unaffected by this investigation and that with the exception of the limited selection of cooked meat products impacted in 2021 Booths is absolutely confident in its British only meat commitment.
“It is also important to note that whilst the NFCU investigation relates to a potential serious food fraud incident, this is not a food safety issue.”