Tesco fined £160,000 after out of date food found in Bracknell store

Tesco bosses have issued a statement after the supermarket giant was fined £160,000 for having out of date garlic bread on their shelves.

The discoveries were made in 2017 at Tesco’s Bracknell North superstore in Warfield on County Lane.

After admitting to health and safety failures in failing to remove out-of-date garlic baguettes, yoghurts, cottage cheese, cod fillets, beef sausages, a sandwich and a Ginsters pork slice, Tesco was also ordered to pay up another £7,000 in court fees alongside the hefty fine.

Bracknell Forest councillor John Harrison slammed the supermarket’s checks as “completely unacceptable.”

Now Tesco chiefs have responded after being handed a whopping fine totalling more than £167,000.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We accept that in 2017 a very small number of products were found to be out of date at our Bracknell North Superstore.

“On discovery, we took immediate action to remove them, and have robust procedures in place to ensure that products on our shelves are within their use-by dates.

“This incident does not reflect the high standards we expect in Tesco stores.”

Tesco also said it took immediate action to address the health and safety issue once it had been discovered, before conducting a review into the incident and introducing additional training for staff on date-checking procedures.

The supermarket giant also claimed the processes it has in place for date checking of products on its shelves have been approved by Hertfordshire County Council — the authority in charge where Tesco’s head office is.