OAKLAND, CALIF. - Belcampo Farms, a premium meat purveyor, addressed allegations that some of the products at its Santa Monica store were mislabeled as organic and grass-fed.
In an Instagram post earlier this week, former employee Evan Reiner, posted a series of video posts that showed the storage room at the restaurant and butcher shop. Reiner claims that some of the meats came from Australian and Tasmanian meat companies and not from Belcampo’s vertically integrated supply chain.
“I apologize to all the customers that I lied to for the past 2.5 years in order to keep my job,” Reiner wrote on Instagram. “The meat @belcampomeatco is not local anymore, it is ordered from West Coast Prime and Rocker Brothers. It is not organic. It is not grass-fed. They are lying to your face and charging $47.99 per lb for filet that is either USDA choice and corn-fed or from a foreign country.”
Belcampo responded to the social media post after it went viral with its own statement on Facebook.
“We appreciate your patience as we’ve been investigating the allegations made by a former Belcampo employee of our Santa Monica Restaurant and Butcher Shop,” the company said. “Like many of you, we were shocked and upset by the videos we saw on Instagram that surfaced serious issues with the integrity of claims on some products and how we communicated them to our customers.”
Belcampo confirmed that a small percentage of its products sold at the Santa Monica location were mislabeled.
“We are deeply sorry for this breach of trust and would never intentionally mislabel our products or instruct our team to do so,” the company continued. “Based on the findings at Belcampo Santa Monica, we’re actively investigating all Belcampo locations to ensure that our strict guidelines for sourcing and labelling are being followed and executed properly.”
Belcampo co-founder Anya Fernald issued her own apology on Instagram as well.
