This is according to Clare Barber, the Minister for Environment, Food and Agriculture, who went on to say that the loss of meat at the plant is ‘disappointing’.
The situation has been blamed on errors with stock management, which saw some produce go past its shelf life.
Speaking during Tuesday’s Tynwald sitting, Mrs Barber said: ‘In January 2024, disposal of beef stock took place as a result of delays in production that were experienced whilst waiting for specialist engineers to arrive and repair equipment.
‘In February and March 2024, there was no meat disposed of beyond that ordinarily classed as wasted during production. This month, that being April 2024, 1859kg of meat produced has been disposed of as a result of errors in stock management.
‘Whilst it is always disappointing to dispose of meat and acknowledging fully the care and attention given by all farming communities in raising their animals, I must also place this in context relating to the company, which processes on average 1.95 million kg of meat per year. This month's disposal represents less than 0.01% of that estimated volume.’
However, Bill Henderson MLC said the amount of product thrown away was ‘far from small’.
He said: ‘Nearly two metric tonnes of meat is a colossal amount of disposal and really we need to be doing far better and looking at ways in the future to address the situation.’
It was also recently confirmed that 56 cattle had been held at the Meat Plant longer than expected in the first three months of 2024 because of concerns over faulty machinery.
Mrs Barber said that 10 cattle were held for 11 days in February, while 46 more were held for a week between March 7 and March 14.
In Tynwald, she said: ‘I can assure you we won't be looking at ways to improve this in the future - we're looking at ways right now. This is absolutely not something that company wish to see continued.
‘There had been errors made, and they have to be rectified.’