Food company and its directors receive hefty fines for breaching food hygiene laws
Two directors of the Mughal Emperor restaurant in Cowbridge have received heavy fines for hygiene offences following a prosecution for Vale of Glamorgan Council.
Mamun Miah and Asad Miah were each fined £2,766, ordered to pay costs of £500 and a victim surcharge of £138 at Cardiff Magistrates Court after failing to comply with two hygiene improvement notices served last year.
In addition, their company was fined a total of £10,000, ordered to pay costs of £1,175 and a victim surcharge of £170.
That followed an inspection by Shared Regulatory Services (SRS), who enforce environmental health regulations across the Local Authority areas of Bridgend, Cardiff and the Vale.
In June 2018 SRS officers identified a number of food safety violations at the restaurant, including dirty equipment, cross contamination of raw and cooked food and insufficient staff training, resulting in a food hygiene rating of two being awarded.
A further visit to check for improvements revealed these three matters had not been addressed, and another a month later found that, though the issue relating to staff training was in hand, the other two remained.
“I hope this case sends out an important message to those operating in food businesses that adhering to hygiene standards is not optional. Recommendations for improvement are made for very good reasons, chiefly to protect the health of customers.
“These violations could have had serious consequences and possibly led to food poisoning. Prosecution is always a last resort, but this is a step we won’t hesitate to take if businesses fail to comply with the instructions our officers’ issue.
“People in the food industry must recognise their responsibility to customers when preparing food and take advice from those whose job it is to protect the public from harmful foodborne illnesses.” - Cllr Eddie Williams, Vale of Glamorgan Council Cabinet Member for Legal, Regulatory and Planning Services.