Barnsley Magistrates Court has imposed a substantial fine of £507,767 on the supermarket chain for violating the Food Safety Act by pleading guilty to five offenses.
These violations involved staff continuously displaying food items that had surpassed their expiration dates at the Old Mill Lane store in Barnsley, Yorkshire.
In its defense, Asda asserted that these offenses occurred in 2024, during which it utilized a different date code verification process.
“We’re committed to keeping our communities safe, a responsibility we take very seriously,” stated Cllr Wendy Cain, Barnsley Council’s spokesperson for public health.
“We expect businesses of all sizes to only sell safe food, and this significant result sends a clear message that we will always prioritize people’s health and safety, taking action when businesses fail to meet regulations or respond to warnings.”
An improved process was put into action in November 2024, incorporating daily manual inspections of all short-life products, coupled with bi-weekly checks on every long-life item.
Barnsley Council’s Trading Standards team identified that several products remained on display even two weeks past their use-by dates, prompting further investigations.
The prosecution followed the store’s failure to heed multiple warnings from the Trading Standards team during several inspections.
A Barnsley Trading Standards spokesperson remarked: “While improvements have been made since these offenses, including a new checking system and enhanced auditing, the substantial £100,000 fine per offense serves as a firm reminder that non-compliance is never profitable.”
In a particularly alarming inspection in March 2024, investigators uncovered 32 expired food items, including 11 different chilled products, totaling 581 days beyond their respective use-by dates.
Among the problematic items were pizzas, curries, and tubs of hummus, all of which were promptly removed from sale and confiscated.
In response to the fine, an Asda spokesperson conveyed: “We are disappointed that some out-of-date products were found on sale at our Barnsley store in 2024. This fell short of the standards our customers rightly expect and that we hold ourselves to.”
“Since the discovery of these products, we have implemented a new date code checking system in every Asda store to ensure that customers always have access to the freshest products.”
