Tesco is fined £7.5 million for selling out-of-date food in three of its stores: Supermarket giant admits 22 hygiene breaches dating back to 2016
- Inspectors visited three stores across Birmingham and found out-of-date items
- Tesco Stores Ltd admitted 22 breaches of Food Safety and Hygiene Regulation
- Investigation was launched after Birmingham City Council received complaints
Tesco has been fined £7.56 million by a judge for selling out of date food at three of its stores in Birmingham.
The grocery giant was handed the penalty by a judge at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on Monday and further ordered to pay prosecution costs of £95,500, Birmingham City Council said.
It was also ordered to pay a £170 victim surcharge.
The fine was handed down after Tesco Stores Ltd admitted 22 breaches of the Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations, which happened between 2016 and 2017.
Fine was handed down after Tesco Stores Ltd admitted 22 breaches of the Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations (stock)
The prosecution by the city council’s environmental health department came after complaints were received by the local authority about food being sold when past its use-by date, triggering an investigation.
Food inspectors visited three of the company’s city food retail premises, in all.
Offending items were discovered at two Tesco Express stores, one in the city centre and the other in Birmingham’s Bournville area, as well as a Tesco Metro which has since been re-branded under Tesco’s discount chain, Jack’s.
Tesco said it was ‘disappointed’ that out-of-date products got onto the shelves adding it took ‘immediate action’ to rectify the problems, while adding it had ‘robust procedures’ in place to ensure there is no repeat.
Date-checking at the grocer’s stores is now externally approved by Hertfordshire County Council because the company’s Welwyn Garden City head office is located in that local authority’s area.
A Tesco spokesman said: ‘We’re disappointed that a small number of out-of-date products were found on sale in three stores in 2016/17.
‘The safety of our customers is always our priority and these incidents are not representative of the high standards of safety and quality we expect in Tesco stores.
‘We took immediate action to address this at the time and we want to reassure our customers that we have robust procedures in place to make sure that this doesn’t happen.’