Ban for director of ‘filthy’ food firm

A director of a company which breached food hygiene rules has been disqualified from heading a company for four years.

Moira Clark was a director at Spalding-based Food 4 Thought when it was found to be operating from filthy premises in 2013.
The company provided dinners to schools across the area.
An investigation was launched after a complaint from a school and inspectors found a catalogue of food hygiene breaches, including raw meat stored on top of cooked meat, dirty equipment and utensils and mouldy drinking cups.
The premises also had flaking paint and dirty walls and inspectors found poorly labelled food, dirty cups, bowls and colanders, mould-stained cutting boards and dirty cleaning cloths.
The firm was taken to court where Mrs Clark pleaded guilty to the breaches.
The company, which traded from Broad Street Business Centre, was fined £13,800 and ordered to pay £4,300 costs.
As a result of the negative publicity following the court case, Food 4 Thought lost most of its customers, and entered liquidation on November 4, 2014 owing £209,982 to creditors, resulting in an investigation by the Insolvency Service.
Mrs Clark was a director of the company from February 2012 until the company was liquidated in November 2014.
She has now made a disqualification undertaking, which has been accepted by the Secretary of State.
The undertaking means she cannot act as a director of any company or take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company for four years, starting on August 5.
Commenting on the disqualification, Sue Macleod, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Moira Clark was responsible for breaches of food safety regulations which put the health of school children at risk.
“Disqualification will help to ensure that there is not a repeat occurrence of this serious failing, and will act as a warning to others.”