Gilfach Goch store fined for selling food past its expiry date

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Trading Standards team are urging customers to check use-by dates when they make their purchases as another local store is found guilty of exposing for sale food past its use-by date.

P&R Convenience Store, trading as Family Shopper in Gilfach Goch, has been prosecuted by the Council’s Trading Standards department after it put customers at risk when they were found to be selling FOURTEEN food items past their use-by dates. 

Under the General Food Regulations 2004 it is an offence to contravene or fail to comply with specified requirements of food law, food safety, presentation – or labelling, traceability and withdrawal, recall and notification. The Regulations provides that food "shall not be placed on the market if it is unsafe". 

The offence was discovered following a complaint from a member of the public to the Trading Standards department. A visit was then conducted to check compliance, whereby the Trading Standards Officer found FOURTEEN food products, exposed for sale passed their use by date. 

The products found were:

2 x profiteroles (product 1 – 8 days past the use by date and product 2 – 1 day past the use by date) 
2 x basil pesto and mozzarella pasta (4 days past the use by date) 
1 x Peter’s classic steak slice (3 days past the use by date) 
7 x hot and spicy meatballs (3 days past the use by date) 
2 x smoked ham (2 days past the use by date) 

If regular date checks were carried out twice a day as advised, the profiteroles would have been missed on 16 checks, the basil pesto and mozzarella pasta missed on 8 checks, the Peter’s classic steak slice and hot and spicy meatballs missed on 6 checks and the smoked ham missed on 4 checks.

Mr Singh, pleaded guilty to all charges and apologised on behalf of the business for the incident, stating that he has since put measures in place to ensure it does not happen again. The business was handed a total fine, which was over £1728 – which MUST be paid in full within 3 months. The fine consisted of a £500 fine, £1028 costs and £200 victim surcharge.

Councillor Bob Harris, Cabinet Member for Public Health and Communities, said:

"If a shop sells food in our County Borough, they have a responsibility to ensure the goods they sell are safe for customers to consume. 
“Use-by dates are applied to highly-perishable food items by the manufacturer and are crucial to ensuring customers are buying and consuming safe items.

“It is unacceptable that a consumer needs to check a product at the point of purchase to ensure that they don’t fall ill, because a business doesn’t have the legally required food hygiene practices in place. Precautions to prevent these offences would have been simple, involving the daily checking and removal of foods past their date.

"The dedicated Trading Standards department offers plenty of advice and help to food businesses on a regular basis and most, thankfully, conduct business in a safe manner, which does not put consumers at risk.

"I'm confident this latest action sends out a message to businesses across the County Borough to have proper measures in place to ensure they comply with food safety regulations, or they will face the consequences."

If anyone has concerns regarding out-of-date food for sale, please call 0808 223 1133 for English language advisors or 0808 223 1144 to speak to a Welsh advisor. For more information on Food Safety Regulations in Rhondda Cynon Taf visit rctcbc.gov.uk/TradingStandards