The company behind a popular Civic supermarket has been fined $16,500 for a series of health and safety offences, including "label tampering".
Rising Wood Pty Ltd, the operator of the IGA on East Row, was ordered to pay the penalties on Thursday after it previously pleaded guilty to nine breaches of the territory's Food Act.
The ACT Magistrates Court heard the crimes were committed between October 2021 and March 2022.
Detailing the first offence, magistrate James Lawton said CCTV footage from the supermarket showed an employee rubbing off the best before dates stamped on various soft drink bottles.
A few days later, the same employee was caught on camera removing loaves of bread from their original packaging and putting them in plastic that did not display a best before or use-by date.
He also removed an expiry tag from another bread product, believed to be a bag of muffins or bagels.
The following month, in November 2021, health inspectors discovered several food products being offered for sale were either expired or were missing a best before or use-by date.
This occurred despite the ACT Health Protection Service having previously educated the supermarket's managers about the significance of such dates.
During the same inspection, health officials also found rusted shelving in the IGA's cool room, a large hole in the floor and unsealed timber shelves above the vegetable preparation area.
The issues did not end there, with the supermarket's food business registration having expired some 18 months earlier.
Furthermore, the business did not have a food safety supervisor and had failed to notify authorities when it became the proprietor of the IGA.
Mr Lawton described Rising Wood's final two offences, committed in March 2022, as its most serious.
Inspectors visited the IGA again that month after reviewing CCTV footage and determining that one of supermarket's managers, Javid Osman, 50, had lied about an upstairs area being used as a gym.
Officials discovered the room was in fact being used to prepare, cook and store food that was then being offered for sale.
Mr Lawton said public health officers had deemed this room "critically non-compliant" because of issues that included unsanitised surfaces and inadequate hand-washing facilities.
Rising Wood had also failed to prevent the likelihood of physical, chemical and bacterial contamination of food in the room, which did not have a mechanical exhaust to properly extract fumes and smoke.
In this area, officials observed uncovered food, food stored on the floor, a lack of shelves, food stored outside of proper temperature control, and various chemicals and pest sprays stored with food.
Rising Wood's lawyer, Peter Bevan, previously told the court the corporation had committed the offences in order to survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
With fewer people working in Civic at the height of the "harsh" pandemic, the number of customers fell from about 1500 per day to somewhere between 200 and 300.
"Things were pretty hard at that time," Mr Bevan said.
On Thursday, Mr Lawton said the downturn in business might explain some of the offences.
However, he failed to understand how it was relevant to the offences that involved the preparation and storage of food.
In calculating the appropriate fines, he said Rising Wood was "a relatively small-sized corporation" that operated a single premises and had annual outgoings of about $450,000.
The magistrate gave the business 12 months to pay the monetary penalties.
Mr Lawton previously fined Osman $1000 after the supermarket boss pleaded guilty to a charge of hindering a territory public official.
This related to what was described in court documents as his "hostile and belligerent behaviour" towards public health officers, who asked police to help with one inspection as a result.
Prosecution 'a last resort'
Chief health officer Kerryn Coleman welcomed the sentences imposed as part of the first Food Act prosecution undertaken since the pandemic began.
Dr Coleman said ACT Health tried to work collaboratively with businesses to ensure food was safe and suitable for human consumption.
"Prosecution is always a last resort and, in most cases, we can work with food businesses to ensure they can maintain effective systems and processes to deliver on their obligations under the Food Act 2001," she said.
"However, ACT Health has a responsibility to protect public safety and ensure food businesses are operating in a way that does not pose a risk to the health of Canberrans."
Dr Coleman said items seized from the IGA as a result of "label tampering" had included cheese, dips, sour cream, jars of gherkins, olives, corn relish and soft drinks.
"Removing or changing best before and use-by labels can deceive and mislead the public into making uninformed decisions about the quality and safety of food at the time of purchase," she said.
"It can also prevent an effective recall of products by the manufacturer in the event of food safety concerns.
"Canberrans are reminded not to consume food beyond its use-by date as this is potentially hazardous to your health."
