Asda supermarket fined £250,000 for displaying food that was out of date

An Asda supermarket has been fined £250,000 after one of its stores was found to be selling food past its use-by date. The products included items aimed at children

An Asda supermarket has been hit with a hefty £250,000 fine for selling food past its use-by date – including some items targeted at children.

The fine was issued following an inspection by Derby City Council’s Trading Standards team at the Sinfin Superstore on Arleston Lane in Derby. During the July 15, 2021 inspection, officers discovered 18 food items that had exceeded their use-by dates on the shelves, despite two prior warnings.

Use-by dates, applied to highly perishable food items by manufacturers, are vital in ensuring customers purchase and consume safe products. The Food Standards Agency emphasises that these dates are the most crucial to remember for food products. Consumers are strongly advised not to eat food beyond its use-by date, even if it appears and smells fine.

The case was presented at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court where, on Wednesday, October 16, District Judge Jonathan Taaffe found Asda Stores Ltd guilty of 11 offences. These were related to offering unsafe food for sale, in violation of regulation 19 of the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013.

Asda Stores Ltd was subsequently slapped with a £250,000 fine and ordered to cover costs of £74,117.69 and a victim surcharge of £190. District Judge Taaffe concluded that Asda Stores Ltd failed to provide a satisfactory defence, instead showing they had not properly implemented their system and had not made improvements following the warnings from the Trading Standards team, reports Derbyshire Live.

Councillor Shiraz Khan, the cabinet member for housing and regulatory services, expressed his views on the matter by stating: “A fine of this scale reflects the seriousness of the situation and the risk it posed to the people of Derby. We are lucky that we have a Trading Standards team who are committed to keeping our city safe, and I am incredibly proud of the work that they continue to do.” He further stressed the council’s stance by saying: “This case serves as a reminder that we are prepared to take whatever action necessary against businesses that break the rules, no matter how big or small.”

Senior Trading Standards officer Victoria Rose, who was in charge of the investigation, emphasised consumer safety, saying: “Customers should be able to rely on stores such as Asda to supply food that is safe to eat. It’s my role to help protect the public when this is not the case, especially when some of these foods were aimed at children and found to be on the shelves six months past their use-by date.”

Trading Standards service manager Donna Dowse shared insights into the complexities of the legal process involved, suggesting: “This was not an easy case to bring before the courts, and as a service we faced many barriers put before us due to the nature of Primary Authority Partnerships when trying to take enforcement action.

“The Primary Authority blocked our enforcement action in this case. As such, Victoria Rose had to take the matter first to the Office for Product Safety and Standards and then to the Secretary of State before we could look at a prosecution. If it wasn’t for this commitment to keeping the public safe, then Asda would not have been held accountable for their failings as they have been today.”

A Primary Authority Partnership is a legally binding agreement between a business and a local authority. When a local authority provides a business with “assured” advice, the business can rely on that guidance during investigations by other local authorities, allowing the Primary Authority to block enforcement action related to that advice.

An Asda spokesperson stated: “We regret that a small number of out-of-date products were found on sale at Asda Sinfin in July 2021, and that the high safety and quality standards that we set across all stores were not met on this occasion. Our top priority for every Asda store is to always have the freshest products available on our shelves.”