Latest News - Prosecutions

On 4 March, Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court heard that frozen food manufacturer Hypergood Ltd of Coronation Road, trading as Royal Gourmet, pleaded guilty to 11 offences.

The company was ordered to pay a fine of £9,091 per offence, along with a victim surcharge of £2,000 and costs of £11,450. In total, the company must pay a fine of £113,415.

The size of the fine reflects years of non-compliance with food safety and hygiene rules and ignored interventions from Ealing Council, scaling up from informal advice to formal warnings, and, ultimately, being instructed to stop food production altogether, following a failed inspection in 2022.

Poor cleaning and mouse droppings

As a business supplying Chinese-style meat and dairy products – including steamed buns, siu mai, wontons, dessert buns, and roasted duck – to its own Royal China group of restaurants and speciality supermarkets, Hypergood Ltd is classified as an ‘approved establishment’.

That means that it must follow more stringent legal rules because of the high-risk and large-scale nature of its work. Compared to non-approved food businesses, it is required to maintain higher hygiene standards and have systems in place to protect public health.

During 3 consecutive, unannounced inspections between May 2023 and January 2024, the council’s food safety team discovered serious breaches, such as poor temperature control, inadequate cleaning, and damaged equipment. Mouse droppings were found throughout food preparation rooms.

More information HERE

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