Pie company fined £25,000 for spiking its own food with chunk of metal – then missing it

A PASTRY company has been fined £25,000 for spiking its own food with a chunk of metal for health and safety checks - then missing it.

Peter's Food Services put the steel plate covered in red plastic into its £1.50 chicken and bacon slice to check on metal detectors in its bakery.

But the pie-makers' metal detection test procedures were not carried out properly and the object was later found inside the slice by a shocked customer.

An investigation confirmed that the object was a metal detector test piece which was inside the filling.

Peter's Food Service, a Welsh company which supplies supermarket's like Sainsbury's, admitted one offence of placing food on the market that was unsafe.

The customer found the object last year and complained to Caerphilly County Borough Council.

The company was ordered to pay a fine of £25,000.00, prosecution costs of £2,176.25 and £500 compensation to the complainant.

Cllr Eluned Stenner, cabinet member with responsibility for public protection, said: "Our Environmental Health Officers conducted a thorough investigation and secured a successful outcome.

"In order to further protect consumers and public health, they also worked with the company to develop new procedures to prevent this happening again.

"I also acknowledge the full co-operation and assistance from the company."

A spokesperson for Peter’s Food Service described the case as an "isolated incident".

The company said in a statement: "In common with standard industry practice, Peter’s inserts 'metal detector test pieces' into test products to check the integrity of its metal detection equipment, and carries out between 900 and 1,000 of these checks every week.

"On February 27, 2017, it was identified that one of the products containing a test piece had not been recovered after one such test.

"A subsequent internal investigation found that Peter’s rigorous Packing Metal Detector Checks Procedure was not properly activated.

"The risk of harm from this isolated incident was low.

"The labelling on the product indicated that this product was a test pack. In addition, the metal test piece was of a size that it would not have caused choking. It was also distinctly coloured red."

TOTAL RECALL How to check if the product you've just bought is affected by a safety recall

An investigation by the Sun Online found that food recalls have gone up by 44 per cent in three years.

Last week, Sainsbury's pulled a batch of sliced beetroot from shelves over fears it may contain glass.

More recently Tesco recalled ready meals due to fears they could trigger allergic reactions.

You can keep up to date with all the latest product recalls at the Sun Online by visiting our regularly updated recalls page.

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