One of Cumbria’s best-known food firms has been accused of a string of health and safety breaches.

Pioneer – under its operating name of PFD (Carlisle) Limited – has been charged with 17 separate offences relating to failure to comply with EU provision concerning food safety and hygiene.

While a court case due to be held before city magistrates was deferred without pleas being entered yesterday, the company issued a full and frank statement to the News & Star – and moved to reassure customers that the issues date back more than a year and were dealt with at the time.

These issues were picked up by the firm’s own internal assessment.

Pioneer, based on Carlisle’s Rosehill Industrial Estate, has confirmed it identified an issue with its former cooked meats department after the bacteria which causes listeria was discovered in some of its products.

It took the immediate decision to shut down that section.

Listings for the magistrates’ court state that all of the alleged offences occurred between December 31, 2014 and December 1, 2015.

Allegations include: the company sold food which tested positive for Listeria Monocytogenes; failing to report that food it had sold may be

“injurious to public health”; failing to protect against contamination; and poor drainage, resulting in waste water from raw meat areas flowing back into the cooked meat production room.

In its statement, Pioneer said: “The company recognises food safety as being of paramount importance.

“Our processors operate to the highest standards of hygiene control and are audited externally to a nationally-recognised standard that carries full approval to public sector standards.

“Our three butchers’ shops have been awarded five out of five food hygiene ratings.”

It continued: “The matters being reported relate to our former cooked meats department which we took the decisive step of closing at the beginning of November 2015.

“This followed the discovery of listeria in cooked meats by our in-house testing programme in late October 2015 which we reported to environmental health.

“We wish to reassure customers of the continued complete integrity and safety of all our products.”

The court case was deferred until January.