THE owners of a York store face a £4,660 court bill for offering several items of food for sale to customers after their use-by date.

The city's magistrates heard how a pack of Fresh Dip Company multi-pack fresh flavoured dips was still on display at the Kwiksave in Hull Road, 14 days after they should have been thrown out as potentially unfit for human consumption.

Customer Leanne Lazenby ate chicken and cheese pasta salad she bought there before realising it was a day past its use-by date.

Head of York food safety Colin Rumford, prosecuting, said his department had warned the shop's manager he was breaking the law several days before Ms Lazenby's purchase, and that after she contacted them his staff found more items on display that should have been thrown out. Internal auditors for Somerfield Stores, which owns Kwiksave, had also found food on display past its dates in the store in the recent past, but the shop had not solved its problem. Somerfields has several previous food safety convictions in different parts of the country.

The company, based in Whitchurch Lane, Bristol, pleaded guilty to six offences of displaying food for sale past its use by date. Magistrates fined it £3,000 and ordered it to pay £1,660 prosecution costs.

Outside court, Somerfields' trading standards manager Eric Price said the company did take its responsibilities very seriously and did work hard to prevent such offences.

Mr Rumford said use by dates were compulsory to protect people eating highly perishable food after it had deteriorated. His officers had found food on display after its use by date during a routine visit on September 24, 2002 and warned the store's manager, who had been unable to find a copy of the company's system for preventing such offences.

For the company, Richard Carlson apologised on its behalf. He said the offences were not deliberate. The York store had had management difficulties.

A new manager and deputy manager had arrived shortly before the first food safety inspectors' visit. After Ms Lazenby contacted the store on October 2, the deputy manager had alerted staff to the problem, but had missed pasta salad in a separate refrigerated display.

Updated: 09:02 Thursday, November 06, 2003