Jamie's Italian hit with £17,000 legal bill after serving pasta to coeliac

Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant business was yesterday fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £9,000 costs after a coeliac customer was not served the gluten-free meal she requested.

Kristy Richardson is understood to have asked staff three times for non-gluten tagliatelle at Jamie's Italian in Portsmouth, when she visited in 2011.

The firm last month pleaded guilty to selling food not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by a purchaser, which is a breach of the Food Safety Act 1990.

Jamie's Italian has now introduced new procedures and extra training, including a "specific allergy" button that has since been added to the machine waiting staff use to place orders, the court heard.

District Judge Anthony Calloway said: "I accept that the root cause of the incident was a misunderstanding between staff. No system could be immune to the misunderstanding which happened in this case and the company is fitting that due diligence.

"Its food safety systems fell short of expectations in this particular case and the company have apologised to Mrs Richardson and taken steps to adjust and tighten their operation."

He ordered Jamie's Italian Limited to pay an £8,000 fine plus £9,212 costs.

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