Asda fined £644,000 over its filthy MOUSE infested in-store bakery – after customer ate bread roll covered in droppings
Pest controllers made 72 call-outs to the Park Royal store in West London over vermin before health officers swooped
SUPERMARKET giant Asda was fined £664,000 after an in-store bakery had to be closed for ten days because of a potentially fatal mouse infestation.
In one year the retailer’s own pest controllers visited the store 72 times because of the plague of vermin.
But after a customer ate cheese rolls covered in mouse droppings local environmental health officers and the chain closed the bakery for ten days in September last year.
Mouse poo was found in bags of flour, food packaging, trolleys used for bread and production area inside the filthy bakery at the Park Royal branch, West London.
A frozen mouse was found in the entrance to the walk in-freezer and staff had left traps and bait boxes strewn across the floor, Uxbridge Magistrates Court heard.
Asda admitted four charges of breaching the Food Safety Act, including failing to keep the premises clean, failing to ensure adequate procedures are in place to control pests, placing unfit food on the market and construction of premises which failed to control pests.
A month after the closure public analyst Jeremy Wooten inspected the bakery and concluded that the rolls bought by customer Mike Draycott, 58, were contaminated when they were placed on top of the mouse droppings.
RELATED STORIES
Judge Barbara Wright said: "Members of the public going into Asda trust that the bread they are going to buy will be clean and safe to consume.
"You have a bakery with bags of flour with mice droppings in them.
"These rolls were absolutely encrusted with mice faeces. Mice urinate 3,000 times a day - these rolls were poisonous.
"There was a dead mouse in the doorway to the freezer. It was not concealed or hidden in anyway."
The court heard that in 2013 a warning notice had been given when birds got into the bakery.
Asda's own pest controllers had repeatedly visited the store but most of their recommendations were ignored.
Defending Jonathan Goulding said Asda had "genuine regret and remorse".
The store had set aside 50 additional hours for cleaning every week and the company has set out a new pest escalation plan for all stores.
Asda, which made a £512 million profit last year, spent around £80,000 on refitting a new bakery and deep cleaning the ovens.
Mr Goulding said: "I express the defendant's genuine regret and remorse and plea of guilt at the first opportunity.
The supermarket was fined £664,000 and have been ordered to pay £500 compensation, costs of £7,599 and a statutory surcharge of £120.
Outside court planning engineer, Mr Draycott, of Wigan, who was awarded £500, said: "These bread rolls could have killed me and it was by the grace of God that they didn't.”
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368
