HMI prosecutes Food City (Stourbridge)

Horticultural Marketing Inspections (HMI), part of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), has successfully prosecuted Food City (Stourbridge) Limited for displaying and selling sub-standard and incorrectly labelled fresh fruit and vegetables.

On October 27, at Halesowen Magistrates’ Court, the independent fruit and veg retailer and its owner, Banares Ali, pleaded guilty to a total of 32 offences (16 offences each) for quality and labelling offences.

At a sentencing hearing, held on November 24, the company was fined a total of £6,400 and Ali was fined £4,000. The fully itemised costs of the prosecution were awarded in full which, along with victims’ support charge, gave a total penalty of £17,762.50.

The prosecution follows an investigation and warnings over an 18-month period between June 2006 and December 2007.

The charges related to breaches of the EC Grading Rules for fresh fruit and vegetables. Initial intelligence about the firm was received from Dudley Trading Standards Officers back in 2006, following a customer complaint concerning the poor level of quality and labelling being offered for sale at the store. Acting on this, HMI inspectors carried out a series of targeted, risk-based inspections between June 2006 and December 2007.

A statement from HMI said: “Despite repeated attempts at seeking compliance, and HMI issuing formal written and verbal warnings to inform them of possible prosecution action, the firm still made no significant or lasting improvements.”

This resulted in HMI making a final evidence-gathering inspection on February 5, 2008, when they recorded 16 separate quality or labelling offences against each defendant.

The following consignments were recorded in this prosecution as failing to meet the lowest marketable class; three separate consignments of apples (varieties, Golden Delicious, Braeburn and Pink Lady), sweet peppers, garlic, cauliflowers, plums, Honeydew melons, prime grapes and shelling peas. Consignments of Brussels sprouts, peaches, Braeburn apples, plums, yellow honeydew melons and cauliflowers were found to be displayed or offered for sale in contravention of labelling rules.

In passing sentence, the magistrate commented that he found the poor quality levels of fresh fruit and vegetables being sold in this case quite disturbing.