An oriental food company in Park Royal supplying meat and diary products to its own Royal Gourmet Chinese restaurants and other specialist supermarkets has been fined over £100,000 for breaches in food and hygiene safety.
Among the food products it supplies include roasted duck, wontons, steamed buns, siu mai and dessert buns.
Ealing Council took action against Coronation Road-based Hypergood Ltd trading as Royal Gourmet for its non-compliance of hygiene standards over the years and last week at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court the frozen food supplier pleaded guilty to 11 offences.
The company was ordered to pay a fine of £9,091 per offence, along with a victim surcharge of £2,000 and costs of £11,450. In total, the company was told to pay out £113,415.
Over the past five years, Ealing Council said its food safety officers issued warning letters and legal notices to Hypergood to improve and maintain standards. The council added that its safety inspectors visited Hypergood Ltd 22 times since 2022 and the business was only compliant with legal requirements on six occasions.
In three unannounced visits between May 2023 and January 2024, the council’s food safety team were concerned over the way food was made and prorpared and discovered major failures including inadequate cleaning, poor temperature control and damaged equipment. Other concerns was finding mouse droppings in food preparation rooms.
According to Ealing Council, the business was constantly given advice and support to improve its standards but didn’t make changes needed.
The court hearing also revealed that Hypergood Ltd was prosecuted by Thames Water in 2019 for allowing oily factory waste to enter a sewer near the river Brent for almost a year. It pleaded guilty to 20 breaches of the Water Industry Act 1991 and was ordered by magistrates to pay a total of more than £332,000.
Councillor Kamaljit Nagpal, the council’s cabinet member for decent living incomes, said: “Food businesses have a responsibility to protect their customers by applying the highest possible safety standards to their operations. If they fail to do so, it can pose a serious health risk to the public.”
Councillor Nagpal added: “As one of the boroughs with the highest number of food manufacturers in the UK, our outstanding food safety team is actively supporting businesses to maintain high standards. We always take the strongest possible action against the minority of businesses that break the rules and needlessly put consumers at risk. As part of that promise, we welcome this decision from the court to hold this business accountable.”
