Poultry producer fine halved on appeal

A Yorkshire poultry processing plant has had a fine for breaching hygiene regulations significantly reduced on appeal.

Iqbal Brothers Poultry of Bradford had been fined £40,000 after admitting serious breaches of the food processing regulations in 2009.

But now on appeal at Bradford Crown Court (April 8) the level of the fine has been reduced to £25,000.

James Dawson, for Iqbal Brothers, said that the level of profit the company had been making had been assessed too highly and that a correct computation of profits meant that a lower fine should have been imposed.

Mr Dawson added that the company had always contested the gravity of the offences saying there had never been a  serious risk to public health and the company had never been ordered to cease production.

It was also added that there were no longer any hygiene problems at the plant.

The prosecution had maintained that at the time the company had ignored repeated warnings from the Food Standards Agency that machinery was not cleaning all birds satisfactorily and there were too few operational staff to check and reprocess them.