Yorkshire curry house owner fined £2550 for serving dish that could have killed customer

Raj Uddin Qureshi sold a chicken tikka masala that was described as ‘peanut and nut free’ to a Trading Standards Officer who visited his restaurant, Taj Mahal on Trinity Square in Richmond in January this year following a complaint from a member of the public.

The food was analysed and peanut protein was detected. The analysis found the dish would have caused a person with a peanut allergy to experience an allergic response.

Trading Standards from North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) discovered the restaurant was using a mixed-nut ingredient that contained peanut. A subsequent investigation found Qureshi failed to provide training to his staff regarding allergens and had no system of recording allergen information for the foods sold by the business.

Qureshi pleaded guilty at York Magistrates Court on Friday to offences of selling food not of the substance demanded by the purchaser, and of placing on the market food which was unsafe and injurious to the health of a person with an allergy to peanuts

He was also found to have falsified a 5 star food hygiene rating, which had never been awarded.

The restaurant was subsequently given a food hygiene rating of 1 from Richmondshire District Council.

NYCC’s executive member for Trading Standards, Derek Bastiman, said: “The potential harm that could have come about had this food been ordered and consumed by a person with an allergy to peanuts is very real.

"There have been deaths as a result of undeclared food allergens. It is vital that food businesses take responsibility for complying with their legal responsibilities to ensure consumers are protected and can rely on the descriptions and claims given to them.

"I call on all businesses to review their practices regarding food allergens. It is not acceptable to put lives at risk.”

Qureshi was fined £500 for each of two food safety offences relating to the sale of the curry, £500 for each of two offences relating to the false food hygiene rating, and was ordered to pay a £50 victim surcharge and prosecution costs of £500 – a total of £2,550.

Since December 2014, restaurants have been required by law to provide information on 14 allergens to customers, either by verbally informing diners or by listing them on their menus.

People with a peanut allergy can, in the worst case scenario, go into anaphylactic shock and die after ingesting just tiny amounts of the ingredient.