Tesco has been fined for selling a children’s birthday cake that had partially been eaten by rodents.
Cardiff council has prosecuted by the supermarket giant for selling food unfit for human consumption at its Tesco Extra store in Western Avenue, Cardiff .
Tesco Stores Limited pleaded guilty to the offence at Cardiff Magistrates Court on Tuesday and was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £8,000 in prosecution costs.
The case was taken to court after a member of the public complained that a Tesco chocolate caterpillar birthday cake, which was ordered via Tesco’s home delivery service, arrived with “rodent chew marks” on it.
Magistrates were shown photographs of both the red box and £4.95 cake chocolate cake being chewed by rodents while awaiting dispatch from the home delivery warehouse at the Tesco Extra store.
Prosecutor Julia Reynolds said an investigation by the council’s food safety team discovered that bags of non-chilled orders for home delivery were being kept in “an unprotected external part of the store despite store management being aware of ongoing rodent activity in the outside areas”.
The court also heard how Tesco management were previously advised by health officials to stop storing “pest-vulnerable foods” outside.
A Tesco spokesman said: “We are more than happy to apologise for what happened. This was an isolated case due to a temporary storage issue resulting in a lack of suitable storage area for some products.
“Steps were quickly taken so that it can and will never happen again,” he added.
In 2004, the retailer was prosecuted for displaying food unfit for human consumption after mice were found gnawing on a pack of Bourbon biscuits on the shop floor of the same Cardiff store.
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