The owner of Penarth Bakery Ltd was banned from managing a food business for 10 years, and was sentenced to four months imprisonment, suspended for one year, at Cardiff Magistrates Court on Thursday (March 2).
Shared Regulatory Services – responsible for food safety standards in the Vale of Glamorgan – issued a total of 11 improvement notices to the bakery “in the interests of public safety”.
Decomposing food
Breaches identified by the food safety watchdog included poor personal hygiene, and storing high-risk food out of temperature control. The staff’s hand washbasin was full of used toilet rolls, and decomposing food was found inside a failed chest freezer. Rats were also found in a first-floor room.
After “the appalling catalogue of behaviour by all involved as to the state of the premises and equipment, enough to turn one’s stomach,” district judge Bodfan Jenkins said the bakery and its owner held “flagrant disregard for the law”.
Penarth Bakery Ltd was fined a total of £2,600 for placing food on the market which was unfit for human consumption. It was also fined £200 for all remaining breaches, making a total fine of £10,000. It was ordered to pay costs of £1,400, and a victim surcharge of £200.
Total fine of £10,000
The bakery’s owner, Gareth Spray, was also fined a total of £7,200, ordered to pay costs of £1,400, and also a victim surcharge of £115. He was ordered to undergo 200 hours of unpaid work, and a rehabilitation programme of up to 15 days.
Cabinet member for visible, leisure and regulatory services Gwyn John said: “Fortunately, cases such as this are rare across the region, and most food businesses work hard to ensure that the highest possible standards of food hygiene are maintained.
“Nevertheless, the outcome of this court case sends a clear message that firm action will be taken wherever necessary to safeguard the public.”
Meanwhile, bakery retailer Sayers was fined more than £160,000 last week for 13 food safety breaches in Liverpool.
Penarth Bakery Ltd food safety breaches
- Poor personal hygiene.
- Failure to protect food from contamination.
- Filthy premises that were in a poor condition.
- Storing high-risk food out of temperature control.
- Failure to ensure that adequate procedures were in place to control pests. Rodents and insects were not controlled at the premises.
- Placing unfit food on the market.
- A failure to implement and maintain written food safety procedures at the business, demonstrating a lack of control and care.
- A failure to comply with eight hygiene improvement notices