A Delaware bankruptcy judge has blocked a committee of unsecured creditors from avoiding $13.7 million in transfers from Tyson Foods Inc. to debtor Quantum Foods LLC, ruling that a post-petition administrative expense claim can be used to set off preference liability.

The committee had tried to avoid and recover the payments, which Tyson said it was owed for food deliveries it made to Quantum in the months after the company filed for Chapter 11 protection in February 2014.