A Fishguard takeaway has been ordered to pay £1,457 after serving up a cross-contaminated dish.
Xiu Ying Yu, food business operator at Dragon House Chinese Takeaway, Hamilton Terrace, pleaded guilty to contravening food safety requirements, when she appeared before Haverfordwest magistrates on Monday, October 28.
Rhian Young, prosecuting on behalf of Pembrokeshire County Council, said a trading standards officer called to order three portions of chicken chow mein on October 24, 2018.
She asked if the dish contained milk, as it was being ordered for a person with an allergy, and the employee checked before replying it did not.
The officer sealed and labelled the dishes before sending a portion for analysis, and they dish were found to contain 3mg per kilo of milk protein.
Miss Young said: “It was sufficient to induce an allergic reaction in a susceptible person.”
The officer returned to Dragon House in November in a bid to discover how the milk protein came to be in the dish, and found it was not part of the recipe.
An open bottle of milk was found on a counter, with a drop spilled beside it near container lids, creating the potential for cross-contamination.
The court heard that the takeaway held a hygiene rating of four, and improvements had been made regarding food safety.
Miss Young added that a sample of special fried rice taken in December 2017 was found to contain egg-white protein, consistent with cross-contamination, despite a request for the dish to be prepared without egg for a person with an allergy.
A warning letter had been sent to Yu as a result.
Miss Young added: “Historically, confidence in food management of these premises has been low.”
Jonathan Webb, defending, said Yu had entered an early guilty plea, and her takeaway had made food hygiene improvements.
He added: “This is somewhat of a mystery to the defendant, so far as how this cross-contamination has happened.”
The court heard that milk protein may have entered noodles used in the chow mein, and other Chinese takeaways could have been affected, however, this had not been tested.
Mr Webb said: “She can’t give a good reason as to how or why this has happened.”
Magistrates fined Yu £416 and ordered her to pay £1,000 costs and a £41 surcharge.
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