The owner of Connecticut-based packing plant New England Meat Packing has pleaded guilty to charges of falsifying numerous E. coli test results.
Under the USDA Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan for the plant, the company is required to perform one generic E. coli carcass swab for every 300 animals, in addition to periodically collecting ground beef samples for testing.
Owner Memet Beqiri authorized a total number of 36 fraudulent documents between November 2016 and September 2017 to be submitted to the company lab sample report binder.
Each of the documents were printed on the letterhead of a certified laboratory that tests food samples for safety, and falsely accounted for 52 separate carcass swabs and ground beef samples.
Beqiri admitted to falsifying the documents and never actually submitting the samples for testing.
There have been no known incidences of illness from the situation. “Such reckless conduct seriously endangers public safety and will be prosecuted,” said U.S. Attorney John Durham.
Beqiri was released on a $25,000 bail and faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
