A takeaway owner has ended up in court after selling peanut and milk products to customers who said they had food allergies.
Officers from Rochdale Borough Council visited Saajan Takeaway on Oldham Road posing as customers with a peanut allergy and ordered a korma dish that contained peanuts.
The takeaway ignored the customer's warning that they had an allergy and sold them the dish anyway.
Officers were so concerned that the business had to voluntarily agree to not serve people with allergies until appropriate measures were put in place.
Council officers also gave them advice about accurate allergy information at the time.
But just ten weeks later, an officer again posed as a customer - this time with a milk allergy - and despite the agreement still being in place, they were served a dish that contained milk.
The peanut dish and milk dishes could have proved fatal for a customer with a genuine allergy.
At Manchester magistrates’ court earlier this month, Mokoddas Ali, of Ashley Street in Oldham, pleaded guilty to six offences – including placing unsafe food on the market and selling food which is not of the nature demanded by the purchaser.
He received fines, costs and a victim surcharge totalling £1,700.
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Councillor Sara Rowbotham, cabinet member for health and wellbeing at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “The public protection team work hard to ensure that our residents with allergies are able to order food safely and confidently.
"If these orders had been placed by someone with a genuine allergy the consequences could have been devastating.
“It is important that we pursue prosecutions like this to ensure that businesses are heavily penalised if they don’t put the safety of our residents at the top of their priorities.”
In 2018, the owner and manager of a takeaway in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, were jailed for manslaughter after a 15-year-old girl died from a peanut allergy.
Megan Lee had highlighted her allergies in her takeaway order but was ignored.
The exercise carried out on Saajan is part of the local authority's work to ensure businesses are taking their responsibilities around allergens seriously.
The Food Information Regulations 2014 require food businesses to either provide all allergen information upfront or to display a sign requesting that customers ask for allergen information if they need it.
This also applies to websites and apps. Businesses must give accurate allergen information to customers upon request and must manage food properly to avoid any cross-contamination.
For more information on food allergens and to report any concerns visit rochdale.gov.uk/allergies or call the council’s trading standards team on 0300 303 8871.
