Southall Sandwich Maker Fined for Hygiene Failures
Bread Spread supplies shops and supermarkets across the country
Unsanitary conditions were found at the company's manufacturing base. Picture: Ealing Council
March 11, 2025
A Southall-based food manufacturer that supplies sandwiches to shops and supermarkets across the country has been fined for ignoring food safety rules.
Bread Spread Ltd, which is based in the Balfour Business Centre, and its director Premalkumar Patel pleaded guilty to 21 counts of serious food hygiene failures at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on 4 March
They were ordered to pay almost £47,000 after the court heard evidence that the company had 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 repeatedly ignored warnings to raise its hygiene standards and failed to comply with improvement notices from Ealing Council officers.
On 7 May 2024, the UK Health Security Agency made the council aware that a potentially life-threatening bacterium listeria monocytogenes had been detected in two Bread Spread Ltd-produced sandwiches. The bacteria was also present in a swab sample taken from a tomato slicer, even after it had been cleaned and disinfected.
During a visit to the factory the next day, council officers deemed the production of Bread Spread Ltd’s ready-to-eat foods as an imminent risk of injury to health and served it with a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice to immediately stop production of all ready to eat foods. Despite this, a further unannounced visit later in May found the business still producing foods under poor hygiene conditions.
On 11 May, 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. The supplier’s poor traceability records caused delays in quickly removing potentially unsafe food from the market.
Listeria monocytogenes usually results in mild infection for healthy adults, with flu-like symptoms or gastroenteritis. However, vulnerable groups – including pregnant women and their unborn babies, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems – face a heightened risk of illnesses such as meningitis or septicaemia. For those groups, it is linked to a 20-30% mortality rate, with 20.6% of reported pregnant cases resulting in miscarriage.
The director and the company were each fined £14,000, with both also ordered to pay a £2,000 victim surcharge. The company was ordered to pay £13,835 in prosecution costs. In total, the company and its director and manager will pay a total of £46,827.
Manager Ronak Patel 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, which means he will pay a total of £942.
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.
“We will always take the strongest possible action against companies which choose to ignore basic safety rules and put their customers at risk.”
l businesses to ensure that all food sold in the borough is safe and legal.”
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