An Indian takeaway owner who served up beef instead of lamb has been handed a whopping £5,570 bill by magistrates.
Durud Miah, of Indian Flavaz, Eccles New Road, Salford, found himself in a hot spot after a routine sampling test by Salford City Council trading standards officers.
The lamb balti they ordered as a test purchase contained beef but no lamb at all when checked in a laboratory.
Mr Miah, 42, of Middlesex Walk, Oldham admitted two offences under the Food Safety Act 1990 – one of selling food not of the nature demanded by the consumer and one of falsely describing food when he appeared at Manchester and Salford magistrates’ court on Wednesday July, 15. He was personally fined £1000 and ordered to pay £420 costs.
His company Indian Flava Limited also faced the same two charges, which he admitted on its behalf. The company was fined £3000 and ordered to pay £1000 costs and a victim surcharge of £150.
The court heard that the phone order was placed on June 5 last year and the trading standards officer collected the lamb balti in person. She identified herself to Mr Miah and explained that the dish would be tested as part of a routine sampling programme requested by the Food Standards Agency. That test found the meat was 100% beef.
In August the officer returned to the shop, revealed the findings and asked to take a further sample of the raw meat being used in lamb dishes.
Mr Miah opened a chest freezer and took out an unmarked plastic bag of the type given away free by supermarkets which he said contained lamb. He was asked if there was any more lamb on the premises and, after speaking to his staff, confirmed there was not. However when tested the sample was beef with less than one per cent sheep meat in it.
Mr Miah was asked about this and claimed a member of staff had bought over £100 worth of beef by mistake instead of lamb. The officer noted that the member of staff blamed for the mistake had worked at the take away for over two years and that, as there were no beef dishes at all on the menu it was highly improbable that beef had been bought by mistake.
Mr Miah said the beef had been put to one side and he had told staff they could eat it though there was no evidence that the meat the officer was shown had been earmarked for staff consumption. Mr Miah claimed there was lamb in another freezer but staff were not aware of this.
The takeaway used an estimated 40 kilos of lamb per month, but Mr Miah was unable to produce any receipts showing he had bought lamb between June and September last year. He claimed they were small receipts and he had lost them. He could only produce receipts for the beef bought by mistake in May.
Mr Miah said he was fully aware of the importance of keeping all paperwork relating to buying food to prove traceability and that descriptions on the menu must accurately describe the actual products in the dish.
Speaking after the case Councillor Gena Merrett, assistant mayor for housing and environment, said: “Mr Miah has cooked up his own recipe for disaster here by trying to pass beef off as lamb to his customers, blaming his staff and failing to produce paperwork he knows he must keep. He now has a bill for what surely must be the most expensive curry in the world.
“People expect to get lamb when they ask for it and not cheaper cuts of meat. Our trading standards officers will continue working hard to make sure customers are served exactly what they expect to receive when buying a take away.”
