REDDITCH Magistrates fined a Lincolnshire poultry importer £12,500 after it was found guilty of selling a Park Farm North company frozen chicken containing excessive water.

Two 10kg samples taken from a batch sold to Seagull Foods Ltd, showed that in two cases they contained just 62 per cent and 39 per cent meat, the rest being made up of water soaked into the breast portions.

Mallard International Limited, which sold the poultry, had claimed it contained a minimum meat content of 82 per cent.

The company, which had imported the meat from Holland, pleaded not guilty but was convicted in the case brought by Worcestershire Trading Standards.

It was also ordered to pay £11,000 prosecution costs.