Connecticut meat processor gets probation for falsified E. coli tests
The owner of a Connecticut meat processor was sentenced to two years of probation and a fine of $15,000 for falsifying E. coli tests. Memet “Matt” Beqiri, owner of New England Meat Packing in Stafford, pleaded guilty last year to making and using a false document and aiding and abetting, reports the Associated Press.
Beqiri and the company’s former quality control offcer, Debbie Smith, produced test results indicating htat there was no E. coli on swabs taken from 52 goat carcasses and ground beef samples. In reality, there had been no tests submitted to a laboratory. This practice went on from November 2016 to September 2017, according to federal prosecutors.
Smith was sentenced to a year of probation last month after pleading guilty. She told investigators that she got tired of driving the test results to a lab on her own time and stopped doing it. Beqiri tld her to create false reports. There were no illnesses ever attributed to the company’s practices.
Source: AP via Big Rapids News
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