Town centre takeaway fined thousands
Slough: Peri Peri Original takeaway fined thousands for breaches
A chicken takeaway in Slough town centre has been fined thousands of pounds after being caught committing ‘serious’ food hygiene breaches.
A chicken takeaway in Slough town centre has been fined thousands of pounds after being caught committing ‘serious’ food hygiene breaches.
Slough Borough Council’s food and safety team first raised concerns about the cleanliness of Peri Peri Original, High Street, during a routine inspection in July 2019.
Inspectors found raw and cooked food were stored together, mould was growing around the sinks and fat and encrusted food debris was on the cooker, preparation surfaces and storage shelves.
Congealed fat was also discovered in a drain gully at the property.
Health and hygiene regulations were also breached by having heavily contaminated raw meat marinades spilled on food containers as well as the fridge handle ingrained with old food.
Inspectors found food was incorrectly stored and refrigerated leading to the possibility of cross contamination.
The council’s food and safety team raised concerns to Bilal Sarfraz who was running the premises.
But they found no significant changes had been made to make things safer during a follow up inspection three months later.
The council issued Food Hygiene Notices on H&A Food Chain Ltd, which owned the business, and Sarfraz who was in charge of its dayto-day operation.
All were complied with within six weeks.
Sarfraz appeared at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Friday, January 22 and admitted a total of 15 food and hygiene breaches committed between July 22 and October 31, 2019.
He also admitted nine food and hygiene offences from October 31, 2019, on behalf of the company H&A Food Chain Ltd.
Sarfraz was sentenced to a 12-month long community order, required to undertake 120 hours of unpaid work, given 15 days of rehabilitation activity and told to pay £1,000 towards the council’s court costs.
H&A Food Chain Ltd was ordered to pay a £8,000 fine and costs of £8,000.
Cllr Pavitar K. Mann, cabinet member for planning and regulation said: “These were serious food hygiene breaches which could have lead to serious illness of one of their customers who chose to order from the takeaway.
“There are simple basic hygiene standards for businesses involved in food preparation and this company fell far below what is expected.
“Not to have hot water or drying facilities for staff to wash their hands is rudimentary; to store food items like chicken and rice at the right temperature when they are high-risk foods requires basic food knowledge.
“Then to have the preparation area dirty with old food, broken floor surfaces, windows and doors which did not keep pests out, just all add up to failing which we are pleased magistrates took extremely seriously.
“Food businesses need to know our food and safety team will work with businesses to get their premises up to high standards residents should expect.”
The takeaway has subsequently closed.
ROYAL BOROUGH: Leading opposition councillors have criticised the draft budget due to be put to the council on Tuesday – describing it as ‘devastating’ and calling for more transparency, writes Adrian Williams.
Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Simon Werner (Pinkneys Green) said he has ‘never seen such a devastating budget’ in his 25 years as a councillor.
“My fear is that it’s ideological for them – they believe in small state where the council does as little as possible,” he said.
“This council is withdrawing from the community. Libraries are being closed, Norden Farm and the Old Court will be taken down to nothing. It’s a spiral of decline.
“The libraries are going to be gone just at the very time we need them the most – COVID-19 is creating a mental health tsunami,” he added.
“I think the council are really abandoning a whole lot of people who are struggling.”
In response to Cllr Johnson’s call for the opposition to come up with ‘genuine’ alternatives and not just negativity, Cllr Werner said that he had come up with several
‘actually really positive’ ideas which the Conservatives ‘just aren’t interested in’.
These include placing Community Infrastructure Levies (CIL) on Maidenhead town centre developments – whereby developers pay the council a levy when they obtain planning permission to build.
Another opposition idea is an ‘invest to earn’ scheme, which seeks to invest in assets to earn revenue, as opposed to selling them off.
Cllr Lynne Jones, leader of the local independents (Old Windsor), said that the way the budget is being framed is ‘spin’.
“All these cuts have nothing to do with COVID, these are decisions that were taken previously,” she said.
“The only strategy they’ve got at the moment is to build up their reserves because they’re still at a minimum.”
In response to Cllr Johnson’s call for alternative suggestions, she said: “There are no alterative suggestions.
“The situation is so bad, we are going down to statutory services and even those are being reduced.
“All this rhetoric about ‘give us options’ – there aren’t any,” she said. “That’s not being transparent because they know there are no options.
“They can’t mislead the electorate like this.
“This was their chance – with a new leader, they said they wanted to be more transparent.”