Asda has been fined £75,000 for selling out-of-date food including five-month-old haslet at its West Bridgford store.
Representatives of the firm appeared at Nottingham Crown Court today after pleading guilty to one offence against the Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations 2013.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s trading standards team inspected the store on April 29 last year after a complaint from a customer who bought two packets of ham they later realised were ten days past their ‘use by’ date.
Councillor Glynn Gilfoyle, chairman of the council’s community safety committee, said: “This case showed the system of checking use by and best before dates at this large store had failed in a substantial manner.
“Food past its use by date can be very dangerous to consume so it’s vital that action like this is taken against any retailer found to be selling such items.”
The vast majority of items found to have passed their use-by date during the inspection were chilled meat products.
There were also other chilled items that had past their best before dates, although it is not illegal to sell such products if the store is satisfied the items are fit for human consumption.
Nottinghamshire County Council said the company carried out a date check of the store, refresher staff training and a high profile national staff briefing on date code management following the inspection.
An Asda spokesman said: “Our customers rightly expect our products to be in date and we are truly sorry that we did not live up to this in West Bridgford.
“We would like to reassure all our customers that colleagues in store were immediately re-briefed to ensure the strict company processes we have in place are always followed.”
