Belgian ’vleesmaffia’ sold meat from 12 years old to Kosovo

BASTOGNE – Veviba, the Belgian company that is the center of a voedselschandaal, exported in 2016 meat to Kosovo twelve years old. The labels were there from torn.

The Belgian newspaper The Latest News could court documents to review, and cited: “On september 19, 2016 was in Kosovo a truck with meat of Veviba from Bastogne. The majority of the labels was kapotgescheurd. On the scraps that still were visible, it appeared that the meat is dated from 2004. The labels also revealed that a part of the meat had come from slaughterhouses of Izegem and Kortrijk. It was repackaged in boxes with the merknummer of Veviba.”

Twelve-year-old meat do not, by definition, a danger to the public health. “At least, as long as the cold chain is not interrupted and the meat still was kept at -18 degrees,” says Bruno De Meulenaer, professor of Food technology affiliated to the university of Ghent. “Microbiologically, there is not immediately a problem, you’re not sick of it. But anyway, these are practices that are not by the bracket.”

The Belgian landbouwminister Denis Ducarme describe the abuses at meat plant Veviba, that sjoemelt with labels and invriesdata, as “its gangster activity and fraud on a large scale.”