A Southall food company in Balfour Road has been fined £46,000 for food hygiene breaches which led to listeria being found in its sandwiches and ready to eat products sold across the country.
Last May, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued a public warning about listeria found in chilled and ready to eat products including sandwiches, wraps, baguettes, twists, french sticks and torpedoes with a range of fillings made by Bread Spread Ltd.
According to its website, Bread Spread Ltd, based at Balfour Business Centre in Balfour Road, supplies universities, colleges and over 1000 independent retail stores across the UK.
At the time, anyone who had bought these products, with a use by date up to 18 May 2024 was told not to consume them and dispose of them safety at home. The FSA and Ealing Council said this was due to listeria and the danger it poses which can include high temperature, feeling or being sick and diarrhoea.
On 7 May 2024, the UK Health Security Agency contacted Ealing Council over concerns that listeria was found in two Bread Spread Ltd produced sandwiches. A swab sample taken from a tomato slicer also contained the life threatening bacteria following being cleaned.
Council officers then visited the Southall factory on 8 May 2024 where they then issued a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice and told the company to stop production of all its ready to eat foods due to a health risk to the public.
Despite the notice, when the council officers turned up again, they found Bread Spread Ltd still producing food in unhygienic conditions.
On 11 May 2024, the national Food Standards Agency issued a country-wide recall of all sandwiches and salads produced by Bread Spread Ltd under its brand names Bread Spread, Orbital Foods, and Perfect Bite. Due to the supplier’s poor traceability records delays occurred in removing unsafe food from the market.
Last week (4 March 2025), Bread Spread Ltd, of Balfour Business Centre and its director Premalkumar Patel pleaded guilty to 21 counts of serious food hygiene failures at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court. The director and the company were each fined £14,000, with both also ordered to pay a £2,000 victim surcharge. Bread Spread Ltd was also ordered to pay £13,835 in prosecution costs.
The court heard evidence from Ealing Council officer that the company mislabelled sandwiches with the wrong shelf life and its products were the subject of a national recall – issued to protect the general public. The company continually ignored warnings from the council to raise its hygiene standards and failed to comply with improvement notices from Ealing Council officers.
Manager Ronak Patel also pleaded guilty to two charges and received a fine of £673 for one charge in totality. He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £269.
Councillor Kamaljit Nagpal, Ealing Council’s cabinet member for decent living incomes, said: “Thanks to swift and coordinated action by council officers and our partners at national agencies, this business has been held accountable for the filthy conditions in its factory.
Councillor Nagpal added: “We will always take the strongest possible action against companies which choose to ignore basic safety rules and put their customers at risk.”
The FSA previously issued a recall notice for Bread Spread products containing chicken in July 2020 due to possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.
