Press Releases

Wishart meets with ABP officials at gas leak site

News Release from Pete Wishart MP

Attn: News Desk                                                     For immediate release: 26 October 2022

Wishart meets with ABP officials at gas leak site

Pete Wishart, MP for Perth and North Perthshire, visited ABP Food Group’s Inveralmond facility to speak with management about last year’s gas leak at the site. The visit came after a recent SEPA report revealed that the incident was the second largest incident of its kind in 2021, contributing 87% of the total hydrofluorocarbon emissions from all sectors in Scotland that year.

Commenting, Mr Wishart said:

“What became clear from the visit was that this was an extremely unfortunate freak accident, caused by the blade of a fan falling on to and rupturing a pipe containing highly polluting F-Gas.

“Notwithstanding the vast damage this caused, I was satisfied that ABP take seriously their environmental obligations and have acted to ensure that such an event is never repeated. This has included switching from F-Gas to a natural based refrigerant with no carbon footprint, as well as fitting new fans with plastic blades instead of metal.

“I was also told that SEPA has yet to offer any recommendations to ABP as part of their investigation, despite the incident being reported to them immediately after it was detected.

“Regular and constructive dialogue between SEPA and industries is crucial in the race to Net-Zero, so I am now seeking clarity on when SEPA expect to complete their investigation and whether their findings will include recommendations for ABP to implement going forward.”

ENDS

Notes:

1. Image of Pete Wishart with ABP officials at Inveralmond estate

2. Full list of safety measures introduced at ABP Perth site:

• ABP has changed the main refrigerant from an F-gas with a large Co2e footprint to a natural based refrigerant with no carbon footprint,
• We have fitted new fans with plastic fan blades instead of metal, with more new plastic fans on order, for other units
• We have reinforced the cooler drip trays to prevent any potential of penetration of the F-gas pipe work underneath, if a fan was to break from its mounts.
• We now have full localised leak detection with refrigerant is present in the coolers, The leak detection system with shut the full refrigeration system down if there was a leak.
• We have improved our daily PPM checks on the individual coolers taken the learning from this incident.
• We have also engaged with our refrigeration specialist contractor apply extra checks when carrying out routine maintenance duties again driven by the learns we have taken form this incident.