Over £5.5k of fines for store owner convicted of selling out of date food

Following a Trading Standards investigation into the sale of unsafe food, on 11 March 2022 Southampton City Council prosecuted UK SP Star, a food shop located at 107 Victoria Road, Woolston, and the director of the company Sudhir Patel

A complaint had been made to the service by a member of the public that food which was past its use by date was regularly being sold at the shop. An inspection by an Officer revealed 32 items past their use by date, mainly meat products, one of which was eight weeks past its use by date. The packaging of one meat product which was past its date had blown, indicating microbiological activity. Food past use by is deemed unsafe in law.

The business had been advised following a similar previous complaint to remove all such food from sale, however they had not heeded this advice and simple precautions, such as daily rotation of stock, had not been undertaken. During interview Mr Patil said that he hadn’t conducted his own checks on the dates and each of his two staff thought the other had made the checks, when neither had actually done so.

The company was fined £4,000, with a further £250 towards costs and a victim surcharge of £190. Mr Patil was fined £1,000, with a further £250 towards costs and a victim surcharge of £100.

Cabinet Member for Environment, Councillor Steven Galton, said: "The sale of unsafe food is unacceptable, and puts consumers at risk of food poisoning. Precautions to prevent these offences would have been simple, involving the daily checking and removal of foods past their date. Hopefully this sends a strong message out to other food traders on the importance of ensuring such checks are undertaken."