Owners of Kettering restaurant fined £12,000 for not following food safety regulations

Anema & Core Limited, trading as Heart and Soul in Rockingham Road, was warned about a number of issues after an inspection on August 25, 2015.

The Italian restaurant had opened without registering with the local authority and despite formal and informal action, the issues were not rectified.

Hygiene Improvement Notices were served on October 7, with a revisit to the premises on November 11 to check their compliance with the orders.

Large amounts of cheeses and cooked and cured meats from the premises had were condemned a week later and destroyed because of a lack of traceability.

No documented food safety management system was in place to show safe procedures for processing this food.

Kettering Council pushed for a prosecution for the company’s non-compliance with the notices.

The company was fined £12,000 and ordered costs of £900 to be paid together with a victim surcharge of £120.

Russ Howell, health services manager for Kettering Council, said: “This business commenced operating in Kettering without notifying the local authority and therefore avoided having any inspection before they started to supply food to the public.

“As well as this, when environmental health officers did get to inspect the premises, they also found that the business was supplying other businesses with no controls in place in relation to this operation.

“Despite both informal and formal action there continued to be a failure to comply with food safety legislation leaving the authority with no option but to take legal action.

“The court has fined the company a significant amount which will hopefully serve as a message to other food businesses that the safe preparation of food for the public is taken extremely seriously by the courts and this authority.

“While we will continue to support and advise those businesses who wish to comply with the law, we will use all of the powers available to us where businesses persistently fail to do so.”