The owner of a food shop in Kensington has been ordered to pay £1,000 and costs after pleading guilty to six breaches of food safety and hygiene regulations.
Itoro John, 36, who runs the African Food Store on Prescot Road, was ordered to pay £1,000 and costs of over £5,000 to the Liverpool City Council after food hygiene inspectors discovered his shop was in a disgusting condition last February. The shop was immediately shut down as it presented an 'imminent risk to health'.
Mouse droppings were found on surfaces in the shop where open foods were kept and beneath shelves storing baby products. A total of 11 dead mice were also found under shelves holding food, as were gnawed food packets and a build-up of food debris which the rodents fed on thanks to the lack of effective cleaning taking place.
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The council's environmental health officers first visited the premises last February, discovering the shop's mice infestation and lack of pest control measures, leading to its immediate temporary closure. The inspectors also found several gaps and holes throughout the premises which allowed the rodents to enter the shop floor.
The shop reopened a month later after health environmental health officers revisited and agreed it could open its doors once again. However it was awarded the lowest food hygiene rating possible of zero, meaning that urgent improvement is necessary.
The following October another food hygiene inspection discovered more than 50 food products, including meat and fish products, that were unlabeled and effectively untraceable, with no best-before date or information available that could confirm what exactly was inside the packaging. These were voluntarily surrendered and disposed of at the time of inspection.
District Judge Wendy Lloyd said: “Standards in the shop were very poor. I have seen the photos, and some are very shocking showing dead mice and droppings. Food was not fit for consumption.
"There were no systems in place for pest control and conditions were extremely poor."
Councillor Abdul Qadir, Liverpool City Council's cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said: "This is a shocking case of food safety and hygiene breaches and we can only be thankful that members of the public did not become very ill as a result. We will not tolerate food businesses operating in this manner and the seriousness of this charge is reflected in the considerable fine levelled at the owner.
"As ever, praise must be given to our environmental health team. The officers do incredible work in Liverpool ensuring that retailers comply with the law and keep us all safe.”
Katy Elliott, a food safety consultant who is currently working with Itoro and the African Food Store to improve their hygiene rating, said: "The standards website seems to be quite difficult to follow for people if English isn't their first language. I've since spoken to environmental health inspectors after the court case and they said they would be coming out to do another inspection.
"I work closely with environmental health inspectors and hopefully they'll see that now moving forward he's compliant in every avenue."
