A Canberra supermarket breached several food safety standards in response to diminishing business during the COVID pandemic, a court has heard.
"It was done for the business to survive," defence lawyer Peter Bevan said on Wednesday.
"Thing were pretty hard at that time."
Rising Wood Pty Ltd, the corporation that owned and operated East Row IGA in Civic at the time of the offending, previously pleaded guilty to nine charges.
They included misleading conduct relating to the sale of food, three counts of non-compliance with the Australian New Zealand food standards code and two counts of handling and sale of unsuitable food.
Present at the ACT Magistrates Court was Javid Osman, who also faced a separate charge of hindering a territory public official and, alongside brother Abdullah Osman, managed the Civic supermarket at the relevant time.
Further charges against all three parties were withdrawn.
Agreed facts state the territory's Health Protection Service received a phone complaint on November 12, 2021, that the IGA was engaging in "label tampering" and selling food beyond its best-before or use-by dates.
Four days later, public health officers attended the supermarket to investigate.
While Osman initially complied, he eventually refused to give inspectors access to the basement food storage area, becoming "argumentative and verbally aggressive".
Osman also denied access to an upstairs area he claimed was used as a gym while displaying "hostile and belligerent behaviour" towards inspectors, who called police for assistance.
Upstairs was later discovered to be a "critically non-compliant" area used for processing, cooking and storing food.
Court documents outline the details of the food safety-related offending caught on CCTV.
This included an employee using a cleaning agent and cloth to rub off soft drink bottle best-before dates and repackaging loaves of bread into blank packaging without indication of necessary dates or product information.
"This practice would deceive the consumer into believing that the product was made fresh onsite," the documents said.
The same employee was also recorded removing an expiry tag from another bread-type product, which was returned for sale and manufacturer best-before tabs were found on the floor near relevant products.
Inspectors found and seized a number of products, including cheese, chips and cleaner, which were for sale beyond their use-by and best-before dates or did not indicate those dates at all.
Osman later told authorities he did not fully understand the requirements relating to best-before and use-by dates.
Other examples of offending included rusted cool room shelving unable to be sanitised, unsealed and unsanitised shelving above the vegetable preparation area, and preparing and storing food in areas which exposed it to the likelihood of contamination.
Public health officers also observed no soap or paper towels at hand washing facilities, no food grade sanitiser on the premises and no evidence of an appointed food safety supervisor.
Mr Bevan told the court his client's business lost a daily average of 1200 customers at the height of the "harsh" pandemic, with fewer people working in Civic.
Prosecutor Chamil Wanigaratne said there were "community expectations" for businesses to adhere to health and safety rules, and that the offending was a "breach of that trust".
He said the supermarket had made a "cost versus compliance calculation".
"The cost for not complying should outweigh being reckless with complying with those standards," Mr Wanigaratne said.
Magistrate James Lawton fined Osman $1000 for hindering a territory public official and is set to sentence the corporation's charges on August 10.
