A meat plant in Scotland’s north-east has has opted to temporally close its production site for the next 14 days due to an outbreak of Covid-19 in the local area.
Seven cases have been reported in the region and the Food Standards Agency (FSS) and Public Health have stated they would allow the facility – Millers of Speyside – to stay open.
However, the business has taken an “ethical decision” to close tonight (September 2), in a bid to protect both its employees and the local community.
Sandy Milne, managing director at Millers of Speyside, said: “The health and wellbeing of our staff here at Millers of Speyside, who have worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure continued food production, is of the utmost importance.
To prevent further spread of the virus among both our employees and the local community, we have opted to close our facility for 14 days.
Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) chief executive Alan Clarke added: “Since the start of Covid-19, QMS has worked hard with industry partners to ensure that the Scottish red meat supply chain has continued to operate when new measures, such as the introduction of social distancing in processors, were introduced.
“Millers of Speyside, like other Scottish food businesses, has whole-heartedly embraced these measures and has followed all guidelines, to isolate the spread of infection, protecting the health and wellbeing of their workforce and the local community.
“We wish those who have been infected a speedy recovery.”
