Costco Wholesale UK Limited pleaded guilty at Bristol Crown Court on Friday, 27 September 2013 to 5 food safety offences. The company was ordered to pay a total of £16,000 fines, £45,000 costs and £15 victim surcharge.
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The firm pleaded guilty to four offences under the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006 relating to food safety and hygiene and a fifth offence under the General Food Regulations 2004 of placing food on the market that was unsafe within the meaning of EC Regulation 178/2002.
The case follows the discovery by Officers from Bristol City Council of large quantities of mouse droppings across the company’s warehouse in Avonmouth in 2012 and evidence of long term mice infestation. Following a complaint from a Costco customer, Environmental Health Officers visited the company’s warehouse at Avonmouth on 27 Jan 2012 where they found the mouse droppings across various parts of the store, including:
- the food aisles,
- the in-store bakery
- the delicatessen food cold store,
The officers found evidence of rodent damage to food and food packaging, including a high number of to ready-to-eat foods such as savoury snack mixes, chocolate Brazil nuts and pitta chips (Pictures attached). There was also considerable food spillage which would encourage mice. Mice could enter the store through unsealed expansion gaps in the concrete floor of the store.
The problem appeared to be long standing. One customer told the Council in Jan 2012 that she had previously complained to Costco’s store manager in Aug 2011 after buying a wrapped chocolate brioche which had been nibbled by mice. Another member of the public also stated that she had seen a dead mouse between packets of rolls at the store during Dec 2011 and had informed the Duty manager.
“Costco management were aware of the existence and extent of the mouse infestation but were slow to fully control the infestation and put the necessary steps in place to adequately protect their customers against the risk of harm.”, said Javed Latif, Senior Environmental Health Officer who led the investigation.
“We considered the affected parts of the store constituted an imminent risk to public health due to the contamination of food and food packaging from mouse activity. We were specifically concerned about the contamination of ready-to-eat food which was on sale within the Store and had, therefore, been placed on the market,” said Wanda Hooper, Senior Enforcement Officer.
The rodent damage and contamination of the food was such that it was “unsafe” within the meaning of article 14 of EC Regulation 178/2002 which says that food is “unsafe” if it is considered to be injurious to health or unfit for human consumption. Costco agreed to a voluntary closure of the affected areas.
When the Council officers re-visited several days later they still found mouse droppings in a number of areas and the checking system were still not entirely satisfactory but the remedial work undertaken had removed the imminent risk to public health so the affected areas were allowed to re-open.
During subsequent inspections in February 2012, officers found further mouse droppings and food product damage at the Costco Store. Officers felt that the presence of food spillage and product damage which had not been identified by staff indicated to the officers that the checking procedures were still inadequate.
“We considered this a very serious case for several reasons “ said Javed Latif.
These were:
- The length of time of the offending given the size and resources of Costco.
- The risk to public health arising from the condition of the store, in particular the risk of sale of contaminated ready to eat foods.
- The failure to remove all pest damaged food from the store.
- The delay in carrying out necessary remedial work to properly pest-proof the store.
Cllr Gus Hoyt, Assistant Mayor with a responsibility for the Environment said:
“This is a disturbing case where Costco failed to take sufficient steps to prevent a serious infestation by mice and, as a result, food on display for sale to the public was unsafe. The work of City Council Environmental Health officers has been first class in discovering the extent of the infestation and taking prompt action to protect the public. I am pleased that the sentence shows that the Crown Court has taken the lack of care by Costco as seriously as we do”.
