Rat droppings have cost a Manchester Bakery £5,000 in fines, after officials discovered a rat infestation that they described as “disgusting.”
Euro Bakery Ltd, situated just off Picadilly station on nearby Baring Street, pleaded guilty to two food safety offences, which are believed to have led to the rat infestation. The bakery which specialises in products such as naan breads and chapattis under the Euro Bakery brand was fined £3,000 along with over £2000 of legal costs and a £15 victim of crime surcharge.
Richard Cowell, Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for the Environment commented: “The conditions we discovered at Euro Bakeries were absolutely disgusting.”
Upon visiting the premises in April, a Manchester City Council environmental health officer found rat droppings throughout the bakery. The rats are believed to have been entering via several routes including a smashed toilet, which exposed the open drain below and holes in the wall; some droppings were even found in the office area above the bakery. The premises were immediately shut down and closed for a number of days until the infestations had been dealt with.
However, prior to the prosecution on November 4, a company representative attended a City Council interview and argued that Euro Bakery Ltd was not operating as a food business at the time of the infestation. According to the representative the boxes of bread products in the warehouse were past their sell-by date and were going to be destroyed.
Contrary to this claim the council found that the company had received a delivery that day of Khoubz, a type of Arabic bread.
In court the company continued to claim that they were not manufacturing the bread but admitted to storing them. A representative for Euro Bakery maintained that the infestation had only occurred the day before and that they had previously attempted to get a pest control contractor to attend several months earlier but the contractor failed to turn up.
Cowell said: “Representatives from this company had consistently lied to us in an effort to avoid taking responsibility. However, we always prosecute companies who act as if they don’t care about the health of their customers. The size of this fine reflects how seriously the courts take these offences, and irresponsible businesses should be warned.”
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