Redbridge Produce and Flowers Ltd pleaded guilty to a total of five separate breaches of the EC Marketing Standards for fresh produce for quality and labelling offences at Leicester Magistrates’ Court and was ordered to pay almost £30,000.
Horticultural Marketing Inspections (HMI), part of the Rural Payments Agency, brought the prosecution against the Leicester branch of Redbridge, based at the Wholesale Fruit Market at Freemens Common, for displaying for sale clementines, satsumas and Bramley apples that were of sub-standard quality as well as cauliflowers and satsuma which were unlabelled.
The prosecution, which will see Redbridge pay out £29,925 in fines and costs, followed a series of enforcement visits, guidance and warnings issued by HMI Inspectors over a nine-month period between March 2008 and November 2008.
Repeated efforts were made by the HMI, working with Redbridge Leicester, to seek compliance from the firm’s salesmen and management. This included the issue of formal written notices and verbal warnings. A face-to-face meeting was held with the company to seek alternative means of achieving compliance, which resulted in a dedicated instruction and guidance workshop being held between the HMI and the firm’s sales staff and management. Despite this, the firm recognised in court that they had “failed to come up to the mark”.
As a result of their breaches, the firm was fined a total of £9,925 by District Judge Holland at the hearing on 8 February. The prosecution was also awarded costs of £20,000, along with victims’ surcharge, giving a total liability of £29,940.
In passing sentence, the district judge recognised the objective of the regulations to prevent unfit produce entering the market and also to ensure traceability and thus protect public health.
In response, a spokesperson for Redbridge told freshinfo: “We can confirm that Redbridge Produce & Flowers Limited has been fined by the Horticultural Marketing Inspectorate (HMI) in relation to produce inspected at Leicester Wholesale Market on 6 November 2008.
“We very much regret the occurrence of this event which happened well over a year ago. Since then new policies and procedures have been introduced to ensure that Redbridge produce is of the consistently high quality standards expected by our customers.”
Judge Holland said that whilst the company had responded to an extent to earlier advice and enforcement efforts of the HMI, at that date of the breaches the company did not have in place systems to prevent them from occurring.
Redbridge Produce and Flowers Limited is the single largest trader operating within Leicester Wholesale Market, responsible for approximately 85 per cent of the total trade generated within that market.
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