Tayto Group's pork scratchings sickened 600 — raw and cooked meat shared a floor

Between September 2020 and July 2022, a Salmonella Infantis outbreak spread across England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Jersey. The source was traced to Mr Porky pork scratchings produced at Tayto Group Limited's factory on Wingates Industrial Estate in Westhoughton, Bolton. Environmental health officers discovered infrastructure defects at the site: the factory layout, inherited from a previous occupant, did not adequately separate areas where raw and cooked meat were handled, and problems with drainage and pressure washing created a route for cross-contamination.

The outbreak was the first in the UK to be prosecuted using whole genome sequencing (WGS), which showed all confirmed case isolates fell within a 5-SNP cluster, meaning they were genetically indistinguishable from the factory strain. Tayto Group pleaded guilty to two charges: placing unsafe food on the market and failing to protect food from contamination. The company recalled products across multiple brands — Mr Porky, Jay's, and The Real Pork Crackling Company — in what authorities described as one of the largest product recalls handled by UK food safety agencies.

On 22 January 2026, Judge Abigail Hudson at Bolton Crown Court fined Tayto Group £153,000 and ordered it to pay £309,136 in costs. The company had already spent more than £800,000 on remedial work at the factory, including a deep clean and layout improvements, and agreed to a collective civil settlement of over £300,000 through Irwin Mitchell. Nearly 600 people reported illness, and 35 were hospitalised, with 12 admitted. The company apologised and said it had fallen short of its usual standards.