TESCO has been handed a huge fine totalling more than £160,000 after out-of-date garlic bread and yoghurts were found at a store near the Royal Borough.

The Warfield supermarket's practices have been slammed as "completely unacceptable" after 46 out-of-date products were found for sale during an inspection which took place in October 2017.

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After being convicted at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Friday, September 25, Tesco was ordered to fork out £160,000 in fines and pay a further £7,756.50 in costs.

During their inspection, Trading Standards found 30 garlic baguettes three days out-of-date for sale.

They also found a Skyr yoghurt and two plain soya yoghurts which were 15 days out of date.

Bracknell News:

Tesco documents showed many of the supermarket’s food safety checks were carried out incorrectly.

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Binfield-with-Warfield councillor John Harrison said: “The level of penalty indicates how seriously the court takes matters of this nature.

“It is imperative that food business operators have in place good systems and that they are robustly implemented to prevent these things happening.

“Having food on your shelves up to 15 days past its use-by date is completely unacceptable.”

Bracknell News:

Having pleaded guilty to charges brought against them, Tesco representatives said their staff have good procedures in place and these offences were from local failures in compliance with those procedures, which were “promptly investigated and rectified.”

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Tesco also stated their long-life fresh food products are checked every seven days and this includes products such as yoghurts.

This means the yoghurts were only missed on two or three occasions rather than up to 15 times.

Food past its use-by date is deemed in law to be unsafe.

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