Meat Plant Owner and HACCP Manager Plead Guilty to Falsifying E. coli Test Results
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut has announced that Memet Beqiri, 32, owner and general manager of New England Meat Packing, LLC, and Debbie Smith, 60, the company’s former Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) coordinator/quality control officer, both pleaded guilty to falsifying numerous Escherichia coli test results.
New England Meat Packing is a federally inspected business that slaughters, processes, sells, and transports meat and meat food products for human consumption. The business had a HACCP plan in place that was approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That plan required the business to perform one generic E. coli carcass swab for every 300 animals slaughtered. The plan also required periodic collection of ground beef samples for the purpose of E. coli testing.