A LIVESTOCK and meat trading company in Monmouthshire has been fined £3,800 and ordered to pay £3,500 in costs at a hearing in Newport Magistrates’ Court.

Mayfield Livestock Ltd of Coed Morgan, Abergavenny, pleaded guilty last Friday to failing to register a food business handling raw meat at their premises. A second guilty plea was tendered for being in possession of unsafe meat.

Environmental health officers from Monmouthshire council with Food Standards Agency vets searched the premises last June and discovered over two and a half tonnes of meat, valued at over £8,000 in storage at the Coed Morgan address. It was seized and at Abergavenny Magistrates’ Court, magistrates deemed the meat unsafe for human consumption and ordered it to be destroyed.

Councillor Giles Howard, Monmouthshire’s cabinet member for public protection said: “It is our duty to ensure that the food on residents’ plates, whether at home or dining out, has been prepared safely and is within regulations at each stage of production.”