The firm was also ordered to pay £4,632 in costs after charges were brought by the Environment Agency (EA) following the incident at its Cucina Sano factory in Boston.
Under its environmental permit, the firm can only discharge treated trade liquid from a treatment plant once it has been cleaned to a prescribed standard.
But following tests from the EA on May 13 last year, the nearby stream was found to have been polluted “for more than a few days” as a result of a lack of proper in-house testing facilities at the site.
Trade effluent
Graham Cantellow, Environment officer at the EA, said: “The release of this partially treated trade effluent led to the pollution of local freshwaters and had a significant impact on invertebrates over a stretch of about half a kilometre.
“Daily checks were inadequate and a better system to monitor the quality of the discharge from the treatment plant would have avoided environmental damage and legal proceedings.”
Claire Corfield, prosecuting for the EA at Boston Magistrates’ Court, confirmed that Bakkavör had failed to carry out adequate checks to make sure the plant was operating properly.
She added: “The firm only became aware of a problem when an environment officer arrived on site in response to a report from a concerned member of the public.”
Corfield also accused Bakkavör of committing similar offences in the past at its other sites across the UK.
No in-house sampling
Following the hearing, Bakkavör claimed that, prior to the incident, there had been no in-house sampling to ensure the treatment plant was performing within permit limits.
But since then the plant filtration unit had been decommissioned and the firm was getting “expert advice” on the reasons for the failure.
A Bakkavör spokesman said the firm “regretted” the incident and confirmed that measures were now in place to prevent a similar occurrence.
He added: “Bakkavör remains committed to complying with all appropriate environmental legislation and the adoption of best practice principles to ensure that it reduces the environmental impact of its operations.”