Anglo Beef Processors (ABP)

Back in 2010, an undercover investigation into one of ABP’s Dorset slaughterhouses found that the company had failed to fit the legally required restraining system, which meant cows were shot in the head up to four times before finally being stunned.⁷ This “system” – which, in reality, is no more than a shelf and could have been installed in moments – had been missing for at least three months.

But all that is water under the bridge because things will certainly have changed since then, right? Well, we checked the most recent audits (accessed Nov 2025) of their ten slaughterhouses and found that four of them could not abide by animal welfare laws even with the auditor standing right in front of them on a pre-arranged visit.⁸

A special shout-out to ABP Guildford for breaching an impressive eight animal welfare requirements at its most recent audit (conducted in June 2025), with six of those breaches being classified as “major”. These related to moving animals in a cruel way, causing avoidable pain during slaughter, and yep, you guessed it, there was a problem with the restraining system which put animals’ welfare at risk.⁹ Some people just can’t, don’t, or won’t learn.

There is a LONG history here so settle in. Let’s start with the “beef tribunal”, which was established in 1991 to investigate allegations made in Ireland's parliament that Larry Goodman’s beef company (then called Anglo Irish Beef Processors) had passed off inferior beef trimmings as higher-grade meat and falsified weights on meat boxes. The tribunal report concluded that many of the allegations relating to fraudulent practices were substantiated.¹⁰

That tribunal also established that one of Goodman's meat processing companies had been caught by customs officials making fraudulent claims for EU subsidies.¹¹ A member of the UK government’s EFRA committee summed up the evidence against Larry Goodman's beef companies in these terms: they faked records, made fraudulent claims for European subsidies, commissioned bogus official stamps to misclassify meat, cheated customs officials, and engaged in institutionalised tax evasion using fake invoices.¹²

Goodman was an exporter of beef to Iraq to feed Saddam Hussein's army, but when Iraq invaded Kuwait and Saddam defaulted on the debt, the Irish government bailed Goodman out to the tune of £100 million.¹³ Thanks taxpayers!

Because old habits die hard, 84% of the beef that had been delivered to Iraq did not even comply with written contracts that it should be halal.¹⁴

Documents released by the National Archives allege that Larry Goodman’s company also breached UN sanctions against Iraq by supplying milk powder via a front company in Jordan.¹⁵

Meanwhile, in 1992, Larry Goodman’s beef business was busy exporting “top quality” meat to Russia that, when tested by EU officials, turned out to be 90% fat.¹⁶

Larry Goodman admitted that he saw every meeting with politicians as an opportunity to extract advantage, admitted he had "fairly liberal access" to ministers and said that this gave him a competitive edge in dealing with rival companies.¹⁷ Goodman was never charged with any offence, but some of his staff were and, extraordinarily, so was the journalist who brought these scandals to light.¹⁸ Perhaps Larry’s friends in high places came good on that one.

There is an unexplained triangle between Larry Goodman, Patrick Coveney, and his brother, the Irish government’s agriculture minister, Simon Coveney. Patrick stated that it was ABP that supplied his food company with horsemeat instead of beef, which caused a huge scandal¹⁹ (see Food Safety section, below) but still Simon Coveney spent three days in New York promoting Goodman’s products to the Americans.²⁰ Untangle that if you can.

In 2004, there were heated wranglings between Larry Goodman and his own solicitor about whether Goodman knew about certain offshore companies.²¹ The whole thing is so grubby that it’s impossible to wade through it, but it all seemed to start when Goodman lent a member of the Irish Parliament £600,000²² out of the goodness of his heart and with no thought to his own advantage, no doubt.

Goodman may or may not have known about those offshore companies in 2004, but between 2013 and 2017, ABP was found to be using offshore companies that had zero employees in order to reduce their tax bill. In a move described as “aggressive tax avoidance”, the company appears to have got its average effective tax rate down to 0.9%.²³

ABP’s billionaire owner Larry Goodman founded a charity to help the poor, needy, and sick, but in 2025, the charity earned £14 million while giving out only £3.3 million, prompting the farming press to accuse him of being better at making money than spending it.²⁴

Larry Goodman’s semi-retirement was met with a heartwarming display of affection from the community. When the Irish Farmers Journal posted the news, readers responded with these kind words: "He should have been locked up decades ago." “Rotten to the core… Hell will not be hot enough.” “Robbed the farmers and then bought their land when the bank foreclosed.” “An absolute obnoxious gangster.” “Crooked as a butcher’s hook.” “Absolute full blown cowboy.” And, the short but sweet, “Sith Lord”.²⁵ Warms the cockles of your heart, doesn’t it?

Thankfully, ABP has entered a new era and has a new chairman who is [checks notes] one Laurence Goodman Junior. All is well.

And none of this stops these cowboys from showcasing one of their farms to MPs. Have a good clean-up and throw in a barbecue and everyone's happy.²⁶

In 2019, anglers reported a water pollution incident from ABP’s Nenagh site in Tipperary, Ireland. Investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency noted that some of the pipelines were badly maintained and contained congealed animal fat, which contributed to the discharge from the slaughterhouse into the river.²⁷

In 2020, ABP agreed to pay costs and contribute to the clean-up of two other rivers after effluent breaches by two of its UK slaughterhouses.²⁸

Then in 2022, there was a major accidental release of fluorinated gasses from ABP’s meat processing plant in Perth, Scotland, which was responsible for 87% of the total hydrofluorocarbon emissions in Scotland that year.²⁹

ABP was right at the heart of the 2013 horsemeat scandal. Its plant at Ballybay, Co Monaghan, was identified as the source of the Tesco economy beef burgers, which turned out to be 29.1% horse.³⁰

Just two years later, in 2015, ABP pleaded guilty to food safety offences relating to not adequately protecting the public from BSE (mad cow disease).³¹

And at their most recent audits (accessed Nov 2025), ABP’s 10 slaughterhouses racked up an impressive array of food safety and hygiene breaches. Yetminster in Dorset was the overall winner with 16 food safety breaches, four of them being described as “major” and "likely to “compromise public health” if not immediately rectified.³²

Some beef farmers that supply ABP are no fans of the company’s founder / director, accusing Larry Goodman of greed and tax avoidance while paying them so little.³³ They even blockaded his slaughterhouses when he started to undercut them by bringing in meat from Poland.³⁴

Some workers at the slaughterhouses are not fans either. They scored ABP below average for all four metrics: happiness, sense of purpose, stress levels, and work satisfaction.³⁵

Their comments about ABP include: “Horrendous place to work.” “Terrible.” “Nothing good.” “Soul destroying.” And “I don't recommend it unless you have no other choice.”³⁶

We don’t know how many accidents and injuries there have been at ABP’s slaughterhouses because the company has declined to publish those figures, but in 2007, it was fined €227,000 when a worker was injured by a conveyor belt falling on his head. In the High Court, ABP had the brass neck to accuse the worker of exaggerating his symptoms, a claim that the judge rejected as "farcical".³⁷

In 2016, two people were taken to hospital and others were treated at the scene after an ammonia leak at ABP's slaughterhouse in Shropshire.³⁸

In 2020, about 80 staff walked out of ABP over health and safety concerns at its Lurgan plant during the Covid pandemic.³⁹

In 2022, ABP lost a case for unfair dismissal after accusing a hygiene inspector of stealing meat when it did not have evidence to back up the allegation. The judge found the company had questioned the worker in an oppressive manner and threatened him with the police. ABP was forced to pay the man £23,000.⁴⁰

In 2025, sick of the poor pay (which is paid by piece rate, a method known to raise the risk of injuries to people⁴¹ and increase animal suffering⁴²), 150 workers at ABP’s Craigavon site downed tools and went on strike.⁴³