Activist accuses senior govt officials of allowing sale of expired beef in 2020

Atchariya Ruangratanapong, chair of the “club for helping crime victims”, named two senior officials from the Livestock Development Department, along with two companies and three other government officials in his complaint.

He said two companies, whose names are being withheld, imported three containers of beef weighing 80 tonnes in 2018 and acquired a licence to distribute the meat two years later. He alleged that by then, the beef had expired and should have been destroyed. Yet, he said, the companies continued selling the meat from late 2020 to early 2021.

He claimed the two containers had entered Thailand via the Laem Chabang deep seaport and the Bangkok Port.

Atchariya said the five unnamed officials included animal quarantine chiefs of Chachoengsao and Chonburi, a Bangkok Port official, deputy director-general of the Livestock Development Department and an inspector for the department.