Mansfield shoppers say they would not be interested in buying pig brains after a supermarket director was reprimanded for selling them in the town. Environmental health officers found fridges running too warm and numerous items for sale beyond their use-by date during an inspection of Zosia Market in Bridge Street.
But the officers also seized a pig's brain from Poland which was being sold in the shop. It is illegal to sell pig brains in the UK for human consumption because of health risks.
Karolina Wegiera, 24, of Mansfield, has now been banned from selling fresh food following a hearing at the town's magistrates' court on December 15. People in the town centre reacted to the news that a Mansfield shop was selling pig brains.
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Len George, 69, of nearby Warsop, said: "The high streets are going downhill and so I'm not too surprised that stuff like this is going on. I don't even eat liver and kidneys, or any offal for that matter, so I certainly wouldn't be buying a pig's brain.
"I went to an abattoir when I was very young and what I saw there put me off offal for the rest of my life. It's not right that a shop here was selling pig brains and it's good that they've done something about it now."
Dale Harrison, 49, who has lived in Mansfield all his life, said: "I've definitely never heard of anything like this happening in Mansfield before. The only way that could be more shocking is if it was happening at a place like McDonald's.
"My grandma used to boil sheep brains when I was young but that was a long time ago and you don't really hear of those parts of animals being used in cooking anymore. I suppose some people must have been interested in buying them though if they were in the shop."
Another Mansfield resident, who did not want to be named, said she would not be interested in having a pig's brain on her table at Christmas. She added: "That really is shocking and I can't imagine it would be very safe to eat something like that."
Councillor Marion Bradshaw, Portfolio Holder for Safer Communities, Housing and Wellbeing at Mansfield District Council, said: "Food hygiene rules are there for our safety and it is important that every shop and food retailer abides by them rigorously. This retailer now has a criminal record and all the implications of that as well as being severely curtailed in what types of foods she is able to sell in the future."
As well as the selling of pig brains, inspecting health officers found inadequate food safety procedures, with one cheese product being kept at a temperature of nearly 20C. Karolina Wegiera, who said she intended to close her shop next year due to its lack of profitability, was fined £80 for each of her offences, ordered to pay a £34 victim surcharge and was also ordered to pay costs of £566.
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