Plant shut in meat alert to reopen

A meat plant forced to shut at the height of the horsemeat scandal has been given the go-ahead to reopen.

Farmbox Meats Ltd, in Llandre, near Aberystwyth, mid Wales, has been given conditional approval to restart its operation.

Work at the plant was suspended by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on February 12 as part of the inquiry into alleged mislabelling of meat products.

A decision on whether to grant full approval will be taken by the FSA at the beginning of next month.

"The FSA has now decided to lift the suspension of the approval of this cutting plant, which means it will once again be allowed to operate under conditional approval," a spokesman said.

"This conditional approval expires on April 5 2013 and a decision will be taken as to whether the plant should be granted full approval to operate."

Plant managers were told they must provide guarantees before being allowed to restart the operation.

The FSA warned the business: "It will not hesitate to withdraw its approval if there is sufficient evidence that there is non-compliance with all requirements placed on food business operators."