Bernard Matthews 'to lay off hundreds' of staff

Bernard Matthews 'to lay off hundreds'

Extracts:

"David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, made no mention of the redundancies when he gave an update to MPs of developments since the outbreak at the plant in Holton earlier this month which led to a cull of nearly 160,000 birds.

Mr Miliband told the Commons: "The expert advice available to me is that there is a constant, low risk of bird flu to the UK and higher risk during migration season.

"There can be no guarantee against further outbreaks. In fact, the only guarantee is that there is a continual risk." "


"YouGov's BrandIndex, which monitors consumer attitudes to 1,100 brands every day, revealed Bernard Matthews was now the second least liked brand in Britain. Only McDonald's has a worse public image problem.

Britain's biggest poultry producer was hit by allegations of a cover-up following the outbreak, amid claims that it had not been clear with the public about the transportation of turkey meat to the plant from Hungary, which had suffered an earlier outbreak of the H5N1 virus.

The company admitted it had imported meat from a supplier just a few miles from where the lethal disease was found in farmed geese last month, but denied it had broken any laws."