A takeaway owner was today ordered to pay more than £3,000 after health and safety inspectors found dirt, grease and mould at her Telford fast food restaurant.
Sameela Begum, 23, admitted seven breaches of environmental health regulations as operator of A1 Fast Foods in Limes Walk, Oakengates.
Magistrates sitting in Telford fined her £300 for each count and ruled she must pay a £1,000 contribution to costs – amounting to £3,100.
Mrs Lorraine Fowkes, prosecuting for Telford & Wrekin Council, said officers had made a routine visit to the premises on July 26 last year.
She said they found food waste, dirt, grease and sour milk in several areas of the kitchen and food serving area.
They also found raw chicken stored next to cheese, above salad and next to cold drinks, which risks spreading contamination.
Mrs Fowkes said the seal on one fridge was found broken and “encrusted in mould”. Other freezers were also found to be broken, increasing the risk of infection.
“Also the building had not been maintained in good repair – there was a broken electric socket,” said Mrs Fowkes.
“And a number of articles were found to be dirty. A seal to a fridge was broken and encrusted in mould.
“There was also evidence of an infestation of silver fish under the stairs where onions were being stored.”
Mrs Fowkes said there was a lack of evidence of sufficient pest prevention and, when staff were questioned, they were found not to know about food hygiene.
Mr Robert Hill, mitigating for Begum, who was not in court, said she accepted the breaches and that she was responsible.
But, he said, she had employed a man who claimed to be qualified to run the premises.
Mr Hill said the man had now left and Begum, from Stoke-on-Trent, had taken over the takeaway full-time and cleaned it up. It was now operating within the law.
Mrs Fowkes said a recent inspection showed the takeaway had been cleaned up, although there were some outstanding issues.
By Dave West
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8 Comments
This kind of thing will not be tolerated. She should have been fined more and banned from tradeing.
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I agree with yorkshire lad – it seems that the public only find out about this after the event – what about the poor souls who have been buying foor from there over the last year or two? – Yuk.
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I agree that she should have been banned from trading.
How is it that food places can invariably get food hygiene so drastcially wrong? One wouldnt tolerate rotten food at home so why is it accetable in business?
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Eww, more of these spot checks are needed.
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absolutely vile! I hope its not left too long before another visit to ensure health & safety standards are kept!
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no more pizzas from there
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i agree i run a kitchen & produce over 20,000 meals a week, i have regular visits & run a tight food safety procedures that gives us results of 96%.more visits should take place monthly if required obviously there are to many to visit but people the public do not realise the standards that these premises & sort of fast foods places operate like, the health risks out there are huge & its the public that need to decice what & where they eat especially your late night takeaway venues i personally trust none.
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ive had an a1 very saturday night,me my boyfriend and my kids and we have really enjoyed it,it tasted perfect and it never made us ill. just shows how lucky we were
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