Administrators of Loscoe Chilled Foods vow to work with authorities
Administrators overseeing the closure of a Derbyshire firm suspected to be at the centre of a national food fraud investigation have said they will cooperate with authorities.
Loscoe Chilled Foods Limited, based in Heanor, went into administration in late March and laid off all its staff, of which Derbyshire Live understands there were around 120.
Since its sudden closure, Steven Ross and Allan Kelly, of business advisory firm FRP, were appointed as joint administrators to the company on April 3.
The appointment, confirmed on Wednesday (April 12), came after the business was subject to an unannounced visit by Derbyshire police and the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) as part of an investigation into alleged food fraud on March 22.
Three people were arrested during the operation, which came after concerns were raised that meat may have been incorrectly labelled as British and supplied to a supermarket.
They have since been released under investigation, the NFCU said. Mr Ross, joint administrator for FRP, said: “Our focus is on formally winding down the operations of Loscoe Chilled Foods Limited and preparing for an asset sale.
“We are engaged with the National Food Crime Unit and will provide any assistance to support their investigations. In the meantime, we have a team working with impacted staff to assist with making claims through the Redundancy Payments Service.”
The investigation was first launched into the suspected food fraud in September 2021, prior to the site visit in March. Booths, which has 27 stores across the north-west of England, confirmed it was the supermarket chain linked to the investigation, with a “limited number” of cooked meat lines removed from sale in 2021.
Callum Parke | Derbyshire Live
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