Asda fined £130,000 for selling out-of-date food - 59 items past their expiry dates found in Huyton store in Liverpool

Asda was taken to court after two inspections found that dozens of items were still on sale despite their expired use-by dates.

Magistrates were told that Asda had previously had warnings after out-of-date was found on the shelves. Despite these warnings, officers found 59 items of food on sale after the use by date had expired when they returned to the store, including 26 packets of ham, 10 packets of cheesecake, eight cartons of crème fraiche, four packets of smoky BBQ tasty bites, four packets of ‘Deliciously Vegan’ no-chorizo slices, two packets of smoked salmon, two chicken and bacon bakes, one toffee sundae, one packet of corned beef and one packet of ‘Nduja & Regato Cheese Pinwheels - with the last of these found to be on sale 18 days after the use-by date had expired.

A council investigation found that the company hadn’t put in place adequate steps to remove foods from sale before the expiry of the use by date. The Asda branch is in Huyton Lane, Huyton, Liverpool and the supermarket was prosecuted by Knowsley Borough Council.

Cllr Shelley Powell, cabinet member for communities and neighbourhoods, said: “It’s really important that retailers adhere to the law and ensure that consumers aren’t put at any risk due to items being available to buy when the use by date has already expired. We will continue to routinely check food businesses to ensure there are no food breaches and take robust action against anyone who is not complying with the law.”

Asda Stores Ltd was called before Liverpool and Knowsley Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and admitted six charges of breaching the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 by placing unsafe food on the market. The company was fined £130,000 and ordered to pay £11,000 in costs to the council.

The council pointed out that Use by dates are placed on perishable foods that could become unsafe to eat if kept for too long. Harmful bacteria can grow to dangerous levels in food without the food spoiling or looking off. These bacteria have the potential to cause serious illness, particularly in vulnerable and elderly people.

The use by date is the date until which the manufacturer can guarantee that the food is safe to eat. Food is legally to be considered to be unfit if kept after the use by date has expired.

The inspections were on February 14 and March 20 last year by the council’s environmental health team.

This prosecution follows similar cases brought by Derby City Council and Cornwall Council for selling food that had expired use by dates. In July Asda was fined £640,000 after trading Standards officers found 115 items, including some that were more than two weeks out of date, at its Leckwith and Pentwyn stores in Cardiff.

It emerged in court that Asda had dismissed some people who were not “working appropriately” in connection with the out-of-date food being left on sale, and Asda’s barrister said that the supermarket knew and accepted that “it was not acceptable for this food to be on sale” and that it “represented a failure at the store”. But he also pointed out that most of the food was only one or two days over its use-by date, and that the store stocks more than 6,000 fresh products - and that any defects in the system had been ironed out.