Asda fined £300,000 after dead mice found in delivery depot

https://uk.yahoo.com/finance/news/as...153619525.html

Supermarket giant Asda has been fined £300,000 after dead mice were found in a London depot.

Shocking images from the storage facility in Enfield showed dead mice on the floor.

The depot is used as a base from which food is delivered to online shoppers across the capital.

Food safety officers from Enfield Council made the gruesome discovery during a visit to the site in Southbury Road.

Officers found dead mice and flies in the bread section, mouse droppings on shelves and packets of cereal and sugar which had been gnawed by rodents on the home baking aisle.

They also found fly pupae shells under shelves, spilt food stuffs and rotting coriander in home delivery trays.

Enfield Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Cllr Daniel Anderson, described the situation as "simply unacceptable".

He said: “It beggars belief that a national retailer would allow food to be stored in an environment where rodents are running riot.


“It is simply unacceptable for customers to be exposed to the potential risk of harm because a company cannot get its house in order and store foodstuff in a safe and hygienic manner.”

Asda pleaded guilty to three breaches of the Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court in January following the visit in May last year.

The company was sentenced at the same court on Friday, and ordered to pay costs of £4,843.61 to Enfield Council.

Cllr Anderson added: “I am pleased that magistrates have taken a tough stance and issued a heavy penalty.

Hopefully it will send out a strong message to all retailers that we will not tolerate them being less than properly vigilant and ensuring their staff abide by their own stated hygiene policies to protect the health and wellbeing of their customers."

An Asda spokesman said: “The conditions found at our Enfield home shopping centre in May 2016 were completely unacceptable and we are deeply sorry that on this occasion the strict processes we have in place failed at a local level.

"We would like to reassure all our customers that immediate steps were taken as soon as the issue was flagged last year to restore the high standards that our customers expect from us.”

Re: Asda fined £300,000 after dead mice found in delivery depot

I bet there'll be lots of activity at other supermarket depots now. How on earth could the depot manager let things get into such a state?

Re: Asda fined £300,000 after dead mice found in delivery depot

Hi

Dead easy, literally.

It started under Blair, Self Regulation, then continued under Cameron.

Big Business Rules.

The next thing to come, heavily promoted by Tesco, is self regulation in Slaughterhouses.

In the last few years of my working life, when I returned to Environmental Health, I had to do 30 hours a year to maintain my Food Qualification.

Tesco were an absolute nightmare.

Re: Asda fined £300,000 after dead mice found in delivery depot

YUCK, another good reason for not shopping at that store!

Re: Asda fined £300,000 after dead mice found in delivery depot

There aren't enough inspectors as swim said earlier in the thread. It amazes me we don't see this more often.

Re: Asda fined £300,000 after dead mice found in delivery depot

Yuk! the thought of it ! I have my shopping delivered by Sainsburys, Tesco or Iceland and the first thing I look for when the driver helps me unload the shopping in the kitchen, is how clean are the trays that they brought the food in. Thankfully, they have been spotless to-date, especially after ASDA were fined for having filthy trays when delivering.

I bet this latest scandal will put a lot of their home delivery customers from buying from them again.

Re: Asda fined £300,000 after dead mice found in delivery depot

Going off topic just for a moment, when my Tesco delivery driver , a very young lad, delivered my shopping this morning, although it was on my list, he had forgotten to collect he who must obey's cigars from the tobacco section.
Of course he apologised profusely and took it off the total, but then he said he noticed a corner shop on the end of my street, he was going to have his half hour break and if I wanted, he would pop to the shop and buy the cigars there for me, which he did. Wasn't that kind of him?
Now if anyone buys tobacco products from Tesco for home delivery, the customer has to sign for them because there have been too many incidents where the customer has phoned to complain that they hadn't received them and the poor drivers were being blamed, so although he showed me the hand-held device to show that he had deducted the cost of the cigars, I still felt I should phone customer service, not to complain which I emphasised to her, but to commend his kind deed (even though it was his mistake). She said she would phone his manager and pass on my remarks and thanks for his kindness.

I wouldn't have phoned if I hadn't already heard him speaking to his manager to inform him or her that he had forgotten the cigars and he was going to the shop for the cigars so my shopping would be complete.

I thought that was beyond the call of duty and very kind.

Re: Asda fined £300,000 after dead mice found in delivery depot

My experience with tescos is very much like yours they are very kind men and women who do go that extra mile to help.

Ocado were pretty brilliant too when we used them.