{"id":385788,"date":"2026-01-23T09:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/385788\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T09:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:17:11","slug":"the-bags-of-pork-scratchings-that-left-600-ill-and-put-35-in-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/385788\/","title":{"rendered":"The bags of pork scratchings that left 600 ill and put 35 in hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tayto Group Ltd was prosecuted<\/p>\n

Tayto Group Ltd’s factory in Great Bank Road, Westhoughton(Image: ABNM Photography)<\/p>\n

A firm has been fined after almost 600 people fell ill after contracting salmonella from its pork scratchings. Tayto Group Ltd was prosecuted following an outbreak of the illness which was linked to its factory in Westhoughton, Bolton<\/a>, and in the production of Mr Porky pork scratchings.<\/p>\n

Cases were confirmed across the UK, including in the North West, South East, Wales, the West Midlands, the South West, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Symptoms complained of by those who contracted the illness included diarrhoea, stomach cramps and vomiting, Bolton Crown Court heard.<\/p>\n

One woman from Hampshire who had purchased and ate the product was hospitalised after suffering from severe diarrhoea and vomiting. She was still feeling unwell three months after her initial complaint.<\/p>\n

A man who bought the pork scratchings in Leicester was ill for a week and also complained of similar symptoms. A total of 35 people went to hospital for treatment, and 12 people were admitted.<\/p>\n

It is believed to be the first prosecution of its type in the UK involving genome sequencing, a system used to identify where such an illness originated. The court was told the case also involved \u2018one of the largest\u2019 product recalls dealt with by authorities in the UK.<\/p>\n

The family run firm, which employs 1,500 people, pleaded guilty to two offences, one of placing unsafe food on the market and another of failing to ensure that food was protected against contamination. The period of the charges ran from July 2021 to August 2021, but the outbreak continued in the following months, it was said. Prosecuting, Richard Barraclough KC said it appeared that a \u2018number of defects had been allowed to develop over a period of time\u2019.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr Porky pork scratchings were recalled following the outbreak(Image: )<\/p>\n

It was found that the outbreak originated from a number of issues within the factory, including a failure to effectively separate areas where raw and cooked meat was stored. The Food Standards Agency issued a product recall notice in August 2021.<\/p>\n

Mr Barraclough said an \u2018enormous amount of work has been done within the factory\u2019 since, and that there had been a \u2018high level of cooperation\u2019 from the firm. Defending Tayto Group Ltd, Jonathan Goulding said: \u201cMy client apologies unreservedly for the harm caused by these offences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt fully accepts it fell short of its usual high standards.\u201d He said three senior members of the company attended the court hearing, and that they \u2018take it very seriously\u2019.<\/p>\n

Company bosses were \u2018shocked at the whole situation\u2019, he said. Mr Goulding said the company has spent more than \u00a3800,000 on remedial work at the factory and has done a \u2018great deal\u2019 to enact improvements.<\/p>\n

Mr Goulding said that the firm has reached the highest safety accreditations in its Bolton plant and at its other locations. Judge Abigail Hudson said she accepted that at the time the company would have had no reason to have identified some of the factors responsible for the outbreak.<\/p>\n

Its factory layout had been inherited from another company and it had been approved by Bolton Council, the judge said. She noted that the company had voluntarily stopped production after the outbreak was identified and carried out a deep clean, and that it had acknowledged the \u2018defects\u2019 when environmental health officers attended.<\/p>\n

The judge fined Tayto \u00a3153,000, while the company was also ordered to pay costs of \u00a3309,136.09.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tayto Group Ltd was prosecuted Tayto Group Ltd’s factory in Great Bank Road, Westhoughton(Image: ABNM Photography) A firm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2193,84,1343,59,56,54,55,145826],"class_list":["post-385788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bolton","tag-business","tag-courts","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-westhoughton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}