Poundland store, London fined £24000 for hygiene offences

Packs of biscuits that had been chewed/damaged by mice were put back on the shelves for sale

• Environmental Health Offices found rat droppings in packets that were for sale
• Poundlands pest control contractor had been in and carried out an inspection within the week

Several packets of biscuits had been re sealed using sticky tape, the gnawing on the packets was evident

Stunned environmental health found that chocolate boxes on the shelves contained rodent urine and droppings,  gnaw marks on the boxes were evident also

Poundland was fined £24000 for the string of hygiene offences that it admitted to.

The EHO call came in from members of the public who were disturbed by what they saw on the shelves.

The EHO also noted a dead mouse under a shelf that had not been cleaned in some time. An emergency notice was served and the store by the local council and was told not to sell food.

A report had been made to the manager of the store by the pest control contractor advising the use of traps and suggesting improved cleaning and housekeeping, however the suggetions by the pest controller were not taken on board.

The admission by Poundland was that they had failed to withdraw food unfit for human conspumption from sale, the failure to protect food from contamination, failure to control mice (even though they had a pest controller), failure to keep the store clean and in good repair and failure to maintain Poundlands own food safety management system.
Poundland was also instructed to pay £3,910 in legal costs by the court.

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What was the manager thinking not acting on the advice of the Pest Controller?
Some clients seem to think pest controllers recommend just for the sake of it,  which is simply not true, pest control firm employees make recommendations to ensure clients don’t fall foul of the Food Safety act, Health and Safety at Work Act and more.

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