Restaurant owner fined £3,000 for food safety offences

A West Lancashire restaurant owner has been fined £3,000 after pleading guilty to food safety offences after peanut proteins were discovered in food described as nut free.

Rivaj of India, in Wrightington, appeared in front of Preston magistrates following an investigation by Lancashire Trading Standards and Environmental Health officers, the Chorley Guardian reported.

Officers found traces of peanut protein in meals and ingredients tested in late 2016 and early 2017.

Owner Badrul Alom was fined £3,000 as well as being ordered to pay a £100 victim surcharge and £1,625.62 in costs after pleading guilty to three food safety offences and three counts of supplying dishes not being of the nature demanded by the purchaser.

Claire Box, principal Trading Standards officer for Lancashire County Council, told magistrates: "What makes this case particularly of concern is the fact that the issue of allergens was raised with the restaurant by Environmental Health in November 2016 before Trading Standards' involvement, and then also specifically mentioned by the test purchaser when the food order was made in December 2016.

"Yet still the defendant failed to take the necessary steps to ensure the finished product was nut free. These failures could have had a much more serious conclusion if a person with a peanut allergy had then consumed the food."

Alom has said that the restaurant has since changed the way ingredients are stored in line with Trading Standards' officers advice.

Videos from The Caterer archives

Are you looking for a new role? See all the current hospitality vacancies available with The Caterer Jobs