Takeaway owner banned from running food businesses after 'five years of breaching food safety regulations'

A takeaway owner has been banned from running a food business and ordered to pay more than £4,000 after failing to comply with safety regulations for five years.

Di Wu, 35, of Walney Road, York, pleaded guilty to multiple food safety charges at York Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

The charges followed inspections of Hong Kong Chop House, in Swinegate, York, which was owned by Infinity Hardheadedness, of which Wu is the director.

Between December 2018 and February 2019 the business had failed to achieve a hygiene rating higher than one, and “was broadly non-compliant with food safety regulations for a period of five years”.

Among issues highlighted by environmental health officers were poor equipment and premises cleanliness, failing to prevent contamination, failure to implement food safety procedures and failure to comply with earlier hygiene improvement notices.

On Tuesday Wu was issued with a hygiene prohibition order preventing him from running a food business and ordered to pay costs of £4,430.

He had previously been prosecuted for failing to comply with hygiene improvement notices in August 2018, in relation to the same property.

Councillor Andrew Waller, the council's executive member for economy and strategic planning, said: “York is home to a variety of food establishments and we will continue to ensure that standards are met and that customers are confident in the quality of the food they are being served in the city. The takeaway was given advice and multiple opportunities to improve, which it repeatedly failed to abide by.”