Food firm fined £16,000 for using chicken in 'lamb' kebabs

A West Midlands food firm has been fined £16,000 after inspectors found chicken in lamb kebabs as part of a crackdown after the horse meat scandal.

Choudry Hussain and Mohammed Mahfooz, directors of Madni Food Products Ltd – based in Charles Henry Street, Birmingham and Brineton Street, Walsall – pleaded guilty to three offences under the Food Safety Act 1990.

Sandwell Trading Standards brought the prosecution after discovering the illegal meat being sold at a kebab house in Smethwick, in January last year.

Hussain, from Kings Road, Kingstanding and Mahfooz, of Finchley Road, Kingstanding, appeared at Warley Magistrates Court last week where they pleaded guilty to selling a lamb seekh kebab, which was in fact a mixture of sheep meat and chicken.

They also pleaded guilty to selling food with misleading labels, claiming it was 90 per cent lamb, when in fact it was a mixture of sheep meat and chicken under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regs 2008.

Magistrates fined Masala Bazaar £5,000 for the first offence, £1,200 for the second and £1,200 for the third. They were also made to pay costs totalling £800 and a victims’ surcharge of £200.

The court further fined Mahfooz and Hussain £3,500 each for the three offences with £400 costs each and £200 victim surcharge each.

Councillor Darren Cooper, Sandwell Council leader, said: