With 16 UK locations and over 12,000 farmer-suppliers based in the UK, ABP Food Group is a major beef processor employing over 6,000 staff across its UK red meat operations.
ABP processes over 600,000 cattle and over 1 million sheep/annum in the UK. Recently, the processor invited a number of media representatives to visit one of its flagship beef processing facilities in Ellismere, Shropshire, England.
ABP Ellesmere is a fully integrated beef processing site and since 2015, £40 million has been invested in developing the beef processing facility.
As part of the site visit which was attended by Agriland, a full tour of the site’s facilities was offered by management at the site.
The tour started in the factory’s lairage which is where suppliers leave their cattle before processing. The lairage was designed by the famous American scientist and animal behaviorist, Temple Grandin.
As the image above shows, all cattle pens have a 45° angle at the entry and exit to avoid cattle having to turn sharply when entering or exiting the pen.
All gates have coated latches to ensure they close quietly. This eliminates loud noises from gates banging and gate latches closing. There were no bright colours used in the construction of the lairage.
When entering the stun box, animals walk up a gradual slope to a holding unit which is lit using brighter lighting. This is because cattle will naturally walk uphill to brighter areas from darker spaces.
All pens in the lairage have concrete slatted floors which are covered with rubber mats.
Approximately 300-340 cattle pass through the lairage every day.
In the lairage office, each farmer can view an image of their animal’s carcass passing through the grading machine and see the confirmation grade, fat score and weight the carcass was assigned.
After five years of planning, two years building and a £40 million investment since 2015, ABP Ellesmere describes itself as “the most sustainable beef processing facility in the world”.
ABP Ellesmere is a carbon-neutral facility as certified by the Carbon Neutral Company; according to the meat processor, the site is “the first of its kind in the world”.
The focus on efficiency is evident as the site generates its own heat and power from biofuels and refined tallow produced from its beef processing operations on-site.
The site also boasts zero waste to landfill, zero net water usage and zero net carbon emissions.
The facility produces a variety of beef products, from steaks and roasts to mince and burgers.
A significant amount of the forequarter beef that is processed on site goes into products such as burgers, meatballs and mince.
The processor undertook significant research and work alongside renowned chef Jamie Oliver to develop dry-aged beef from a niche product to a mass-market product. The ABP Ellesmere site claims to be the first processor in the industry to develop dry aging of beef on a large scale.
The largest majority of the beef processed is sold within the UK market and 70% of the hind quarter prime beef is dry-aged on site.
