LoginCardiff TS Fines Asda £640,000
Meat and dairy products past their use-by-date were found on shelves in two Cardiff stores.
Journal of Trading Standards Staff
Posted 23 July 2025 | JoTS Online
Content Tags: Updates|Food and Drink|Wales
Supermarket chain Asda has been hit with a £640,000 fine after pleading guilty to selling out-of-date food at two of its stores in Wales following a prosecution by Cardiff Trading Standards.
During six separate inspections of Asda stores at Capital Retail Park and Pontprennau in Cardiff between January and June 2024, Trading Standards Officers found more than 100 food products that were past their use-by-date. These included high-risk items such as meat and dairy products, as well as ‘ready-to-eat’ items that were marketed towards children. Some of the products were as much as seven days past their use-by-date.
Consumers should be confident that the food on sale at stores is safe to eat. It is essential that robust systems are in place to prevent the sale of food past its use-by-date
At a hearing on 21 May, Asda Stores Ltd pleaded guilty to four charges of selling unsafe food, in breach of Regulation 4 9 (b) of the General Food Regulations 2004. In a subsequent hearing on 17 July, the company was fined £640,000 and ordered to pay £15,115 in prosecution costs, plus a victim surcharge of £2,000.
When imposing the fine, District Judge Charlotte Murphy cited the seriousness of the offences, the duration of time over which the offending took place, the number of food items that were past their use-by date, the turnover of the company, and the fact that efforts to address the offending had been ineffective.
Councillor Norma Mackie, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Shared Regulatory Services at Cardiff Council, commented at the conclusion of the case: “Consumers should be confident that the food on sale at stores is safe to eat. It is essential that robust systems are in place to prevent the sale of food past its use-by-date.
“In this case, Asda fell significantly short of the required standards expected. The systems that they had in place were clearly inadequate and we hope that Asda has now taken the necessary steps to rectify these failings to ensure that such incidents do not occur again.”
It is not the first time Asda has been prosecuted by Trading Standards for selling out-of-date food. In April the supermarket giant was ordered to pay fines and costs totalling more than £430,000 after Cornwall Trading Standards found food that was as much as four weeks past its use-by date in local stores. And in October 2024 the company was ordered to pay fines and costs of almost £325,000 following a prosecution by Derby City Council Trading Standards, which had found food on shelves as much as six months past its expiration date.
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Content Tags: Updates|Food and Drink|Wales
