A food manufacturing business in Tylorstown has been fined more than £1,600 for hygiene breaches following an investigation by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Environmental Health Officers.
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Kenneth Leslie Bailey of “Something’s Cooking” (also known as “Bailey’s”) on East Road, Tylorstown, pleaded guilty to six offences at Pontypridd Magistrates’ Court.
He was fined £200 for each of the six convictions plus costs of £400 and a victim surcharge of £15 which amounted to a total sum of £1,615.00.
Something’s Cooking is a small food business that manufactures and distributes cooked faggots.
The Court was told how it is considered to be a high-risk food premises in terms of food safety due to the ingredients that are handled which include raw meat and offal, and due to the nature of the final product which is “ready-to-eat”.
Food Business Operator Kenneth Bailey undertakes most of the processing at the premises alongside his brother. The faggots are cooked and the majority of them are transported hot in open trays to retail and catering premises within and outside of the boundaries of Rhondda Cynon Taf. A small proportion of faggots are cooled and sold in polystyrene trays covered with cling film.
A Council Environmental Health Officer, who is responsible for ensuring that consumers do not become exposed to bacteriological poisoning or food borne disease that could potentially be harmful to health or even fatal, visited the premises unannounced.
Three on-site investigations identified several serious contraventions of hygiene legislation which resulted in the prosecution. The six offences were:
- Failure to maintain up to date cooked faggot temperature records
- Failure to protect food from contamination, in that dirty and damaged trays were being used for packaging cooked faggots
- An apron used when handling cooked faggots and a different apron used for preparing raw meats were being stored next to each other (in direct contact) on the same coat rack
- A food handler was seen handling cooked faggots whilst wearing an apron which was designated for use when handling raw meats
- Failure to maintain up to date monitoring records, namely temperature records for the fridge used for storing cooked faggots
- A food handler was seen handling raw pigs heads whilst wearing an apron which was designated for use when handling cooked faggots
The Court heard that Bailey had consistently failed to maintain satisfactory food hygiene standards despite having been given several opportunities to improve over the course of more than a decade.
David Jones, Head of Community Protection at Rhondda Cynon Taf Council, said: “The poor food handling techniques we highlighted could have resulted in food poisoning because the business manufactures a high-risk ready to eat food which can be eaten without further processing.
“Something’s Cooking has a history of periodic lapses in compliance with the food hygiene requirements. Although they have responded positively to interventions by Environmental Health Officers, they have tended to allow standards to fall between inspections. We could not allow this pattern to continue and this prosecution was brought to encourage the company to maintain the standards necessary to protect local consumers.
“Environmental Health and Trading Standards officers, regularly visit, inspect and advise thousands of businesses across Rhondda Cynon Taf to ensure standards are high and the law is followed. Prosecutions are rare and reserved for businesses such as this, who do not comply with the law and refuse to take advice.
“This work is vital as it ensures the public are protected and that businesses in a position of responsibility are not putting consumers at risk with slack, illegal or unacceptable practices. Identification of such premises will continue with regular, routine inspections, but we also need consumers with information to make contact if they have concerns.”
