The former owner of a popular pizza takeaway in Frodsham has been fined £1,350 after admitting a string of food hygiene offences.
Samir Benali, of Jauncey Street, Bolton, pleaded guilty to nine charges concerning Pizza Pan in Eddisbury Square - which is now under new ownership - at Chester Magistrates Court last week.
The court heard that during a routine food hygiene inspection in March 2013, Cheshire West and Chester Council’s food safety officers found that standards of cleaning and structural compliance were far below those expected.
Benali was fined £150 for each offence, and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £1,548 and a victim surcharge of £20 - £2,918 in total.
The charges were: failure to provide effective pest control measures; failure to protect high risk food from contamination; failure to provide soap for washing hands; failure to maintain the kitchen walls in a sound and clean condition; failure to maintain the kitchen ceiling in a sound and clean condition; failure to maintain the kitchen floor in a sound and clean condition; failure to keep premises clean in general; failure to provide a documented food safety management system; failure to register the food business in his name with the local authority.
Subsequent monitoring visits by food safety officers to the premisesrevealed that appropriate improvements in standards had been made and maintained, and that the business complied with the regulations before the business changed hands in August 2013 and afterwards.
Executive member for localities Cllr Lynn Riley said: “The public has a right to expect the food we eat to be safe and prepared in a hygienic way in clean surroundings.
“This type of case shows that the responsibility to safeguard food hygiene is on food business operators to meet the standards expected by the regulations and the consequences should they not be met.”
