Food safety guidelines are very important to uphold, particularly when it comes to big food manufacturers whose foods are consumed by a huge number of people. Food safety and contamination risks have been brought to the fore once again with the recent case against Krispy Kreme.
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As reported by Leicestershire Live, Krispy Kreme UK has been penalised with a hefty fine after a customer found a piece of jagged metal inside their doughnut. The doughnut was purchased from a Krispy Kreme shop in Melton.
Krispy Kreme held accountable for contaminated doughnut
Once the shocked customer determined that it was indeed a piece of metal they found inside their doughnut, they reported it to the Food Standards Agency and Melton Borough Council in April 2021.
The Council stated that when the person contacted Krispy Kreme after finding the metal, the company falsely claimed that the foreign object was actually a piece of foil from the packaging.
The Council pursued the case against Krispy Kreme UK which has now been successfully prosecuted. The company admitted to three food hygiene offences at the Leicester Magistrates' Court, which then fined the company £216,000 and also ordered it to pay £4,255 to the council for the cost incurred due to this trial.
Krispy Kreme had received two further complaints about the metal
Although Krispy Kreme tried to brush off the issue earlier, it was later revealed by the Council that this customer was not the only one to receive a similarly contaminated doughnut.
As per the statement by the Council,
Krispy Kreme later admitted that they had received two further complaints of similar nature and had identified damage to a piece of equipment, a vari-mixer, yet no controls were in place that could have mitigated the hazards that lead to this incident, such as metal detection or recorded checks of the machine.
Krispy Kreme reported to the court that metal detection has been installed at its Nottingham factory where the doughnut was made in August 2021.
This case has highlighted the importance of thorough checks that need to be made by all food manufacturers, and also comes as a wake-up call for customers to remain vigilant and report immediately to the authorities in case they find any contamination in their packaged food.
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