Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Trading Standards team are urging customers to check use-by dates when they make their purchases as another local store is found guilty of exposing for sale food past its use-by date!
Londis ‘Pentre stores’ in Pentre, has been prosecuted by the Council’s Trading Standards department after it put customers at risk when they were found to be selling FIVE food items past their use-by dates.
Under the General Food Regulations 2004 it is an offence to contravene or fail to comply with specified provisions, including rules relating to the requirement of food law, food safety, presentation or labelling, traceability and withdrawal, recall and notification. The regulations state that food ‘shall not be placed on the market if it is unsafe’.
The offence was discovered during a routine food standards inspection of the shop. The owner had previously received advice in relation to exposing for sale or selling food past its use by date.
During the inspection FIVE vegetable lasagnes were found exposed for sale that were SEVEN days past their use by date. If regular date checks were carried out twice a day as advised, the products were missed on 14 occasions as past their use by date and remained on sale.
Appearing in court earlier this month Mr Veliah Muraleetharan advised in his mitigation he now had new systems in place to ensure that food would not be sold out of date and on this occasion, it was human error that they kept getting missed. A guilty plea was put in and Mr Muraleetharan was ordered to pay a total of £1,186. This consisted of a £632 fine, £300 costs, and £253 victim surcharge.
Councillor Bob Harris, Cabinet Member for Public Health and Communities, said:
"If a shop sells food in our County Borough, they have a responsibility to ensure the goods they sell are safe for customers to consume.
“Use-by dates are applied to highly perishable food items by the manufacturer and are crucial to ensuring customers are buying and consuming safe items.
“It is unacceptable that a consumer needs to check a product at the point of purchase to ensure that they don’t fall ill, because a business doesn’t have the legally required food hygiene practices in place. Precautions to prevent these offences would have been simple, involving the daily checking and removal of foods past their date.
"The dedicated Trading Standards department offers plenty of advice and help to food businesses on a regular basis and most, thankfully, conduct business in a safe manner, which does not put consumers at risk.
"I'm confident this latest action sends out a message to businesses across the County Borough to have proper measures in place to ensure they comply with food safety regulations, or they will face the consequences."
If anyone has concerns regarding out-of-date food for sale, please call 0808 223 1133 to report it (or 0808 223 1144 to speak to someone in Welsh). For more information on Food Safety Regulations in Rhondda Cynon Taf visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/TradingStandards.
Posted on 06/08/2025