A hog roast company from London has pleaded guilty at Truro Magistrates Court to selling unfit meat at the Boardmasters event in August 2012 and has been ordered to pay a fine of £6,750, costs of £10,418.40 and £120 victim surcharge.

Officers from Cornwall Council’s food and safety team discovered five pig carcasses in the trailer belonging to Rainha Santa Portuguese Foods Ltd, a company based at 39 Mahatma Gandhi Industrial Estate, Milkwood Road, London SE24 0JF, that were in a "state of decay".

A further carcass was being cooked on the spit at the time of the inspection. It later transpired that the pigs had been transported to Cornwall without adequate refrigeration and this is likely to have been an influencing factor to the smell and slime observed when the officers inspected the carcasses and immediately removed them from sale.

Cornwall Council Food and Safety Manager Nick Kelly said: “Inspection of foods sold to the public are a routine part of food safety inspections, and any food found to be in an unfit state will be removed and action can be taken against the food business operator. In this instance the diligence of the inspecting officers saved a large number of people from unwittingly buying unfit food.”

Andrew Topham, Managing Director of Boardmasters said: “Boardmasters takes selection of food contractors very seriously and undertake a rigorous application process in partnership with Cornwall Council environmental health team.

"In this isolated case it seems that the contractor did not follow the correct procedures for refrigerating meat and this was promptly picked up during a routine site inspection. Working with the Council, we acted swiftly and the food outlet was closed and removed from site.

"We would like to reassure all our festival goers that their safety and wellbeing is of paramount importance.“

Cornwall Council cabinet member for homes and communities, Geoff Brown, said: “The sentence imposed by the magistrates reflects the seriousness of this case. The council carries out thousands of food safety inspections each year and regularly advise businesses on how to comply with the law. However, when businesses potentially put customers at risk by selling unfit meat, we will not hesitate to take formal action through the courts.”

Falmouth Packet:

Falmouth Packet: