The owner of a pizza shop who served up a pizza with mouse droppings has been banned from running a food business by a judge at Plymouth Crown Court.
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Pervez Alvi who ran Favourite Pizza in Union Street pleaded guilty to five offences under food regulation laws and banned from running a food business again. He was also sentenced to 60 hours community work on each count, to run concurrently and ordered to pay a contribution to costs of £500.
The case was brought to court by Plymouth City Council after a customer purchased a pizza which had mouse droppings baked into its crust.
‘This is Plymouth’ reported that Prosecutor Julia Cox told Plymouth Crown Court that on March 20, 2010, a woman bought a pizza from Favourite Pizza as a treat for her son, who had just come out of hospital. But as they ate it, they noticed “a strange chemical taste”, which turned out to be caused by mouse droppings containing rodent poison. The woman phoned the shop and Alvi called to see her, commenting: “At least you didn’t eat all of it.” He offered her £30 for the return of the pizza, but she refused and called Environmental Health. Blue-green pellet-shaped objects in the pizza base were found to be mouse-droppings.’
Alvi pleaded guilty to five offences under the General Food Regulations 2004 and Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006 for failing to: comply with the food safety requirements, to keep food premises clean and maintained in good condition, to protect food at all stages of production, processing and distribution against any contamination and to have adequate procedures in place to control pests.
The judge also banned Alvi from running a food business again, using powers under the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006.
The court heard a customer contacted the Food Safety and Standards Team at the Council about the pizza which was delivered from Favourite Pizza in Union Street in March 2010. Officers visited the premises and found a serious mouse infestation with droppings throughout the premises and on food equipment and surfaces. The pizza shop was closed until the health risk from eating food made at the shop had been removed.
Once the shop was allowed to re-open, and had been trading for a few months, officers carried a follow-up inspection. There were more mouse droppings, together with numerous structural problems and evidence of poor cleaning.
In mitigation, the court heard Alvi’s financial circumstances had led to the offences. He had pest control procedures but these were not adequate.
Councillor Mike Leaves, Cabinet Member for Community Services – Street Scene, Waste and Sustainability, said: “We have a duty to protect the public from food poisoning and the sale of unfit food. Cases like this are extreme, however, where there are serious breaches of food safety requirements, legal action like this will be taken.
“Plymouth City Council works hard to help businesses to maintain good standards of hygiene. We offer free advice for food businesses on how to comply with food hygiene requirements. We run a whole range of training courses, including bespoke courses for particular types of business. We have resources in many different languages. We are able to give food business operators all the information they need to keep the public safe.
“Food businesses play a vital part in our economy and city life and people need to be confident in them.”
