The Minister for the Department of Environment, Food, and Agriculture confirmed that 1859kg of Manx meat has been disposed of at Isle of Man Meats since the beginning of April.
Speaking in the House of Keys, Minister Clare Barber MHK admitted to Tynwald that it is ‘disappointing’.
The disposal of the meat has been blamed on errors with stock management, which saw some produce go past its shelf life.
Disposed of in April
In the Tynwald sitting Minister Barber said: ‘In January 2024, disposal of beef stock took place as a result of delays in production that were experienced whilst waiting for specialist engineers to arrive and repair equipment.’
The amount of stock and monetary value of the issues in January is still unknown due to the ongoing cost recovery with insurers.
In February and March, there was no meat disposed of beyond that ordinarily classed as wasted during production.
Although the plant processes around 1.95 million kilograms of meat each year, Bill Henderson MLC said the amount of product thrown away was ‘far from small’.
Henderson said: “Nearly two metric tonnes of meat is a colossal amount of disposal and really we need to be doing far better and looking at ways in the future to address the situation.”
DEFA and IOM Meats
Minister Barber was the former Chair of Isle of Man Meats, but stood down from chair last year when Nigel Davies was recruited into the role.
The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture is the voting shareholder in the organisation.
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