The manager and director of Pizza Uno, a takeout restaurant in Lancashire, England, have been fined after a sting operation determined the eatery was breaking regulations designed to protect diners with food allergies.
An official from the Lancashire County Council posing as a customer with a milk allergy placed an order for a chicken tikka naan in July 2023. The dish he received was found to contain sufficient milk protein to be deemed harmful to a person with a milk allergy.
The manager, Faiz Ul Hassan, and company director of PizzaUno & Shawarma Ltd, Farzana Bibi, admitted to the food safety offenses and appeared in Lancaster Magistrates Court on September 3, 2024.
The company was fined in excess of $10,000 which included a victim surcharge and court costs.
The manager who was interviewed by Trading Standards blamed a ‘communication error’ due to ‘linguistic differences’ with his native language for not understanding that yogurt contained milk. He also incorrectly claimed that the cooking process would eliminate the yogurt from the dish.
He was fined $1,600, and his wife, the company director, was fined $1,000. She claimed her husband was in charge of day-to-day operations but accepted responsibility as the company’s sole director.
Councillor Michael Green, Lancashire County Council cabinet member for Health and Wellbeing said:
This highlights how vital it is for businesses to take allergens seriously and to provide food that is safe for people with allergies. This failure could have had severe consequences had the food been eaten by someone with a milk allergy.
I thank our Trading Standards team for this important work. They will continue to check food that’s provided by Lancashire businesses and to raise awareness of allergens.
Lancashire County Council offers allergen awareness training for businesses and I would encourage them to take advantage of this.
