Selling a bread roll with a metal screw in it has cost a Lincoln bakery more than £11,000 in fines and costs (Photos on Flickr).
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A W Curtis Bakers and Butchers Ltd pleaded guilty to placing unsafe food on the market in a joint case brought by North Kesteven District and City of Lincoln Councils.
Appearing before a district judge at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court on Monday, January 20, director Neil Curtis also admitted the firm failed to have adequate food hygiene procedures in place for a period of more than six months. He also admitted failure to ensure food equipment was maintained in good condition, as the screw was found to have come loose from a flour bin lid.
The court heard a customer bought a pack of bread buns from a supermarket in Waddington in June last year and found the screw baked into one of the rolls.
An officer from the food team at NKDC alerted colleagues at the city council, who discovered failings in Curtis’ food safety management and equipment maintenance procedures. Products that should have passed through a metal detector were not being scanned as required, and maintenance records were incomplete.
An inspection at the firm’s Lincoln factory in Long Leys Road showed they had received at least three previous complaints from customers who had found metal in products including cake and a pork pie.
As a result of this, the city council issued a hygiene improvement notice. However, a further inspection showed the firm simply removed metal detection as a critical control point, which was not sufficient. It has since been reinstated.
District judge John Stobart said: “A well-known and well-respected firm has fallen from the state of grace that long-term supply to the citizens has earned them.
“I’m aware the bakery has installed a machine to ensure any metal is detected. That machine should be used. Here it is absolutely apparent that certain products for whatever reason were being diverted and not put through the machine. That is a serious failing. The public has a right to demand that the food that’s being produced is being properly produced.”
A W Curtis was fined £3,000 for placing unsafe food on the market, plus a £15 victims’ surcharge. North Kesteven District Council was awarded £1,500 costs.
For failing to follow its own food safety procedures the company was fined £2,500, with a further £2,500 fine for failing to maintain food processing equipment. Costs of £1,750 were awarded to City of Lincoln Council.
Speaking after the case, Cllr Richard Wright, NKDC’s Executive Board Member with responsibility for food safety and enforcement, said this case showed how important it was for consumers who found unexpected things in their food to report it to the their local council’s food team.
He said: “When we bite into a bun, open a bag of frozen veg or delve into a bag of crisps it can be so easy for us to simply think that whatever we find there is disgraceful or disgusting and throw it away, but it can also be very dangerous and should be reported to prevent similar things affecting other consumers.
“As the judge in this case said, this was a serious failing which put this person at risk of significant injury if the screw was swallowed and digested. The public has a right to expect that all food being produced for them is being produced safely and it’s the council’s responsibility to ensure businesses adhere to this.
“Hopefully the significant fine Curtis’ now has to pay will ensure that they and all producers tighten their procedures and ensure nothing like this happens again.”
Sara Boothright, Food and Health and Safety Manager at the city council, added: “The Food, Health and Safety Team have limited resources and we ensure that our time is spent on those businesses that present the greatest risk to public health, in this case A W Curtis Butchers and Bakers over a prolonged period of time failed to meet food safety requirements and were prosecuted for their failings.
“The clear message to food businesses in the city is make sure the food you produce and sell is safe to eat, as many of them do. However, for those that fall well short of what is expected or demonstrate continuing non compliance we will prosecute.”
Further Information
A W Curtis Bakers and Butchers Ltd was fined a total of £8,000 for three offences:
- Failure to implement and maintain a permanent procedure based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) principles for bread and bread bap production between March 11 and September 30 2013.
- On June 26, 2013, failure to ensure that equipment which comes into contact with food is kept in such good order, repair and condition as to minimise any risk of contamination.
- On June 27, 2013, sold and thereby allowed food unsafe, injurious to health, unfit for human consumption, in the form of a bread roll containing a metal screw.
