Town pub slapped with £8k bill after salmonella outbreak

The licensee of the New Inn, High Street, Deal, was ordered to pay almost £8,000 (£7,757) for serious breaches of food safety legislation, following a successful prosecution by Dover District Council, heard at Canterbury Magistrates’ Court on 6 February.

The prosecution followed an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning in September 2016 and poor food hygiene practices being identified at subsequent inspections at the pub.

At least 10 people became ill after eating food from the pub in September 2016. Inspections to investigate the outbreak revealed problems with unfit and out-of-date food, food not being stored at a safe temperature, poor controls against cross-contamination, and the premises and equipment not being kept clean.

Voluntary closure

As a result of the conditions found, the pub was subject to a voluntary closure, where it did not trade as a food business for three days while improvements were made to the hygiene standards.

At the court hearing, licensee of the pub Deborah Doyle, 46, pleaded guilty to nine food hygiene offences.

Magistrates noted that serious harm had been done to a number of people and Doyle was fined £3,500 for hygiene offences, with a £170 victim surcharge and costs of £4,087.

Only incident

A spokesman for the New Inn said: “The pub is open now and still serving food. There are lots of people in and it is not a problem.

“On that day in 2016, there was a braderie (yearly street fair and street market), which is a very, very busy day. The pub had about 120 covers that day and, out of those, unfortunately, some people became ill.“

The spokesman outlined how the pub has changed since the incident in 2016.

He added: “Since the incident, apart from the days mentioned, the pub has been totally open, nobody has stopped it from serving food and it has been safe.

“The pub has looked at its practices and a new chef has been brought in. The licensee has been at the pub since 2003, which is a long time, with no other occurrence happening and certainly since that incident, nothing else has happened.”