Local supermarket ordered to pay £500,000 fine for food safety offences

Asda Stores Ltd has been fined £500,000 for repeatedly displaying out-of-date food items for sale at their Old Mill Lane store, potentially putting local people’s health at risk.

The company pleaded guilty to five offences under the Food Safety Act at Barnsley Magistrates Court last Thursday (29 January), being ordered to pay £507,767.77 in fines and costs.

In June 2024, our Trading Standards team found that the store was continuing to sell food items past their use-by date, failing to respond to warnings from inspections earlier in the year.

Officers found three non-compliant chilled food products for sale during this follow-up visit, consisting of nine individual items which were collectively 91 days past their use-by date.

During an earlier visit in March 2024, which led to a Food Standards Inspection, our Officers found 32 out-of-date food items for sale, spanning eleven different chilled products and totalling 581 days past their use-by date.

All out-of-date food products found during these visits were removed from sale and seized by our Trading Standards team, who informed the store that follow-up visits would take place to ensure compliance with this important food safety issue.

Use-by dates are only applied to food products that have the potential to cause food poisoning, with our teams acting fast to mitigate this risk to some members of our community.

While improvements have been made since these offences, including a new checking system, retraining and increased auditing in the store, the sizable £100,000 fine per offence sends a clear message that non-compliance never pays.

This successful prosecution is a fantastic result for both our Trading Standards and Legal Services teams, showing how we’re committed to making sure food safety standards are maintained by all businesses across Barnsley.

Councillor Wendy Cain, Cabinet Spokesperson for Public Health and Communities, said: “We’re committed to keeping our communities safe, a responsibility we take very seriously. Our teams do great work supporting businesses of all sizes to understand their responsibilities and comply with safety standards, including issuing warnings where improvements can be made.

“We expect businesses of all sizes to only sell safe food, and this significant result sends a clear message that we will always put people’s health and safety first, taking action where businesses fail to comply with legislation or respond to warnings.

“I would like to thank our Trading Standards and Legal Services teams for all their hard work on this case to help keep potentially harmfully products off our shelves.”

If you have any concerns about businesses selling food beyond its use-by date, please let us know by calling 01226 773743 or emailing regulatoryservices@barnsley.gov.uk.