Harehills shop selling 47 food items past use by date including 104-day-old chicken in Leeds 'health danger'

Aamir Masood of BK Stores of Harehills pleaded guilty to a number of offences under the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2023 on Monday September 4, 2023, and was ordered to pay thousands of pounds in fines as well as prosecution costs and victim surcharges.

Officers from the West Yorkshire Trading Standards conducted a routine inspection at Masood's store on 78 Harehills Road in Leeds in November last year, and found 47 food items past the use by date.

The items, which included five packs of sliced chicken 103 days past the use by date along with other meat products, were collectively 2,772 days past the use by date.

Mr Masood said in an interview that his suppliers had failed to come and replace his out-of-date food items and that date code checks were carried out every week.

He was fined £3840 and was ordered to pay an additional £1888.02 in contribution towards the prosecution costs and a £1536 victim surcharge.

David Strover, Trading Standards Manager at the Business Services Team, said: “Businesses must ensure that they undertake regular date checks on items bearing use by dates, they must invest in appropriate staff training and recording methods to ensure these checks are performed.  

“It is the responsibility of food retailers to ensure such checks take place. Use by dates are placed on foods which are highly perishable from a microbiological view and are therefore likely, after a short period, to constitute an immediate danger to human health. Trading Standards will continue to take action against any businesses flouting the law.”

 Councillor Pauleen Grahame, Member of the West Yorkshire Joint Services Committee which oversees the work of Trading Standards, added: “The work of Trading Standards plays an important role in Food Standards. 

“Food past the use by date cannot lawfully be sold, and retailers should make checks to ensure they do not offer for sale out of date food that is marked with a use by date. In this case, the items were significantly out of date and clearly should not have been offered for sale by the food business operator.”