Tesco fined over out-of-date food

The out-of-date food was bought across five south Wales stores

Tesco has been ordered to pay more than £50,000 in fines and costs after an investigation found five south Wales stores were selling out-of-date food.

The supermarket chain admitted 25 charges before Abergavenny magistrates.

Trading standards officers visited five stores in Newport and nearby and bought food which was a public health risk.

District Judge Gerwyn Watkins said it was a "systematic failure" by Tesco. The firm apologised, saying strict procedures were not followed.

Trading standards officers from Blaenau Gwent, Newport and Torfaen councils went to five Tesco stores in Pontypool, Ebbw Vale, Newport (Spytty Road and Harlech Retail Park) and Abertillery.

A total of 102 items were bought on the visits between August and September 2006.

We hope the result of this case will be a wake-up call to all food retailers to put in place procedures to ensure out-of-date products are removed from their shelves Glyn Caron, Torfaen Council

Nineteen items were one day out of date, one was two days past, another two were six days, and three more did not have a date on them at all.

As well as admitting 25 charges, Tesco asked for a further 23 offences to be taken into consideration.

It was fined more than £23,000 and ordered to pay Torfaen Council's legal costs of £30,000.

Torfaen councillor Glyn Caron, executive member for planning and public Protection, said: "The offence of selling food after its 'use by date' is there to protect public health.

'Very sorry'

"The various items of food purchased from Tesco had the potential to cause serious harm to anyone who consumed them.

"We hope the result of this case will be a wake-up call to all food retailers to put in place procedures to ensure out-of-date products are removed from their shelves.

After the case Tesco issued a statement saying: "We have strict procedures in place to prevent this sort of thing happening and are very sorry that these were not followed in these instances.

"This is very unusual as our stores take part in daily audits to prevent any out-of-date food being left on shelves.

"We would like to reassure customers that we have taken this extremely seriously and we have retrained staff involved."