Mouldy food leads to £6k bakery fine
Woodchester-based manufacturing bakery J Hall & Sons (Bakers) Ltd was ordered to pay £6,400, after admitting to breaching food safety management legislation in court.
The bakery – which has retail outlets in Stroud, Nailsworth, Tetbury, Cirencester and Swindon – was visited by inspectors in January 2019, having previously been served a hygiene improvement notice in February 2018.
Extensive mould growth
During their visit, inspectors found extensive mould growth on numerous items of food inside a walk-in fridge, one of which was almost three months out-of-date. Mouldy items included cartons of cream, tins of fruit, egg yolk and a tub labelled ‘sourdough starter’.
At Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court on 23 September 2019, Timothy Hall, on behalf of J Hall & Sons, pleaded guilty to an offence of failing to properly implement the company’s food safety management system at the time of Stroud District Council’s inspection.
Hall was fined a total of £3,000, and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £170 and pay the Council’s full costs of £3,233.25.
Legal action to protect the public
Stroud District Council head of health and wellbeing Jon Beckett said it would work with any food business to ensure high standards but wouldn’t hesitate to pursue legal action, if necessary, to protect the public.
“Food inspectors always act quickly to ensure that poor standards of food hygiene are dealt with and most businesses respond well,” he said. “However, it is occasionally necessary to take legal action to deal with the worst cases and appropriate measures were taken in this case to ensure future compliance.”
Meanwhile, in August, a director of a South Cambridgeshire food firm was ordered to pay more than £15,000 after health inspectors found maggots and rodent droppings in its production area.
