Tesco slapped with £7.56m fine for selling out-of-date food
Tesco was slapped with a £7.56m fine for selling out of date food at three of its stores by a Birmingham judge on Monday.
The judge at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court also ordered the supermarket giant to pay a victim surcharge of £170, alongside the prosecution costs of £95,500, Birmingham City Council said.
The penalty was handed down to Tesco after it admitted 22 breaches of the Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations, between 2016 and 2017.
The prosecution was spearheaded by the city council’s environmental health department following complaints it had received about food being sold while past its use-by date, which triggered an investigation.
While visiting three of the company’s food retail premises in the city, food inspectors found two Tesco Express stores and one Tesco Metro selling out of date food products.
The date-checking of products at stores must now be approved externally by Hertfordshire County Council, where the company’s Welwyn Garden City head office is based.
The company said it was “disappointed” that out-of-date products made their way onto shelves.
“We took immediate action to address this at the time and we want to reassure our customers that we have robust procedures in place to make sure that this doesn’t happen,” a Tesco spokesperson said.