Restaurant meat supplier Russell Hume in administration

The company previously supplied hospitality groups including JD Wetherspoon and Jamie’s Italian, which took some steaks and chicken off the menu​​ when it ended its contract last month.

The FSA stopped all distribution of Russell Hume products in January after a surprise inspection found instances of ‘serious non-compliance with food hygiene regulations’.

Now Chris Pole and Mark Orton from KPMG Restructuring have been appointed joint administrators to Russell Hume Limited.

“The recent product recall and halt in operations has caused significant customer attrition and trading difficulties, which in turn has led the directors to take the decision to place the company into administration,” said Pole.

“Regrettably, with little prospect of production restarting on site, a total of 266 people have been made redundant. Our priority over the coming days will be to work with all affected employees to provide the assistance they need in claiming monies owed from the Redundancy Payments Office."

Derby-based Russell Hume operated from six production sites in Liverpool, Birmingham, London, Boroughbridge, Exeter and Fife, and supplied meat to restaurants, hotels and pubs across the UK.

In a statement to Sky News​ Russell Hume described the decision as ‘heartbreaking’ and said the FSA had created ‘impossible trading conditions’ for the company.

“We will continue to work with the FSA with regards to the issues it raised, but we still feel its action has been out of all proportion to the concerns it says it has identified," the company said.

The FSA has also launched an industry-wide review of all meat cutting plants and cold stores in the wake of the its findings at Russell Hume.

Last week meat supplier Fairfax Meadow withdrew a number of its products​​ from catering customers after the FSA raised concerns over the ‘procedures and processes’ used to apply use-by dates to some items.

KPMG is seeking buyers for the Russell Hume business and its assets.