Tesco fined £7.5m for selling out of date food at Birmingham stores

Tesco has been slapped with a fine of £7.5 million for selling food which was past its ‘use by’ date in three of its Birmingham stores.

The case pertains to inspections carried out between 2015 and 2017 by environmental health officers who found stores in Bournville, Rubery and the city centre selling out of date food on several occasions.

Tesco has pleaded guilty to a total of 22 offences across the three stores, which totalled 67 separate items, at Birmingham Magistrates Court on 21 September 2020. The court on Monday (19 April 2021) ordered the supermarket group to pay a fine of £7,560,000 and £95,500 costs, as well as a £170 victim surcharge.

“Supermarkets have a duty of care to ensure the food and drink they display for sale are in date and therefore safe to consume – however visits by our officers and the public complaints show this is not always the case,” Mark Croxford, head of environmental health for Birmingham City Council, said.

During the first inspection at Bournville Tesco Express, after receiving a complaint from a member of the public, on 17 June 2015, officers found six items on display beyond their use by date. A follow-up on 12 April 2016 on an invite by Tesco did not fare any better, as they still found various items on display including own-brand pizza, doughballs, soup, pork belly slices, potato salad, trifle and flavoured milk, out of date for between 17, 4, 3, 2 and 1 days.

Visits to the Tesco Metro store at Rubery on 1 June 2017 and Tesco Express in the city centre on 2 June 2017 have also led to the discovery of items displayed for sale beyond their ‘use by’ date.

“There were numerous missed opportunities to check the dates on these products and remove them from display – and the fact incidents were found on several occasions, in different stores and over 14 months, is a major concern,” Croxford said.

Tesco said it is “disappointed” that out of date products were found on sale in its stores.

“The safety of our customers is always our priority and these incidents are not representative of the high standards of safety and quality we expect in Tesco stores,” a spokesperson said. “We took immediate action to address this at the time and we want to reassure our customers that we have robust procedures in place to make sure that this doesn’t happen.”

Tesco added that it conducted a thorough review of its date checking procedures following the incidents, and these processes have been externally approved by its primary authority, Hertfordshire County Council.