A SANDWICH business and its owner, who seriously breached food hygiene regulations, were ordered to pay a total of £61,343 at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court.

It follows a prosecution by Hillingdon Council’s food health and safety team.
Perfect Bite, of Units 8 and 9 Gazelle Buildings, Wallingford Road, Uxbridge, was ordered to pay a fine of £37,500, a victim surcharge of £181 and £11,767 in legal costs.

Its owner, Muhammed Akram, was also ordered to pay legal costs of £11,767, together with a victim surcharge of £128 and received a 16-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

Akram must also complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
He was banned from running a food business again after listeria was discovered in samples taken from chicken, egg and sausage sandwiches.

Perfect Bite was judged to have a chaotic safety management system, in which frozen chicken was left to thaw in fridges for up to three weeks and labelled with incorrect ‘use by’ dates. 
Many out-of-date sandwich fillers were given extended shelf life – of up to 19 days on one occasion – and food containers and cleaning equipment were unclean.
Hillingdon’s inspectors found no evidence of any hygiene training among staff, and basic measures such as temperature checks were not being carried out correctly.

Cllr Eddie Lavery, cabinet member for Residents' Services, said: “It was only a matter of time before a member of the public became seriously ill (or worse) from eating food produced by Perfect Bite.”