Food Safety

Coffee bar owner fined £3,300 after forcibly ejecting environmental health officer 17/06/2011 A Bradford coffee bar owner and his former business partner have been fined a total of £3,300 after being found guilty of attempting to throw an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) off the premises during an inspection.

A Bradford Council EHO visited the coffee bar in July 2010 to discover a series of food hygiene offences, including a filthy kitchen area. She also found there was no HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) regime in place. The business owner was told to clean up the premises but a follow- up inspection on 8 September revealed the situation had not improved.

During this visit, the owner tried to eject the officer forcibly and threw her bag out of the door.

At Bradford magistrates court last week, the owner pleaded guilty to 10 food hygiene offences and also accepted eight charges laid against his company Smorgasbord Limited.

His former business partner also pleaded guilty to a charge of obstructing an officer from carrying out his or her duties under the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006.

The defence spoke of the owner saying he had acted out of character and that the premises had since been properly cleaned.

The company was fined a total of £1,600 and ordered to pay £2,500 costs along with a £15 victim surcharge.

The owner was fined £1,500 for the food hygiene offences and £50 for breaching the terms of a conditional discharge served last July. The former partner was fined £150 and ordered to pay £200 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Bradford Council declined to comment on the case.

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