Restaurant counts the costs of beef in lamb dish

Worcestershire County Council has successfully prosecuted a Worcester restaurant for selling lamb meals that contained other meats.

Habibur Rhamon, appearing on behalf of the Monsoon Restaurant, Foregate Street, Worcester pleaded guilty to one offence under the Food Safety Act 1990 and one offence under the General Food Regulations 2004.

The case arose following a special project conducted by Trading Standards into meat species in June 2006. Officers visited the eatery and took a sample of a lamb dish, which was sent for analysis at the County Council’s Scientific Services laboratory in Stourport, which found it contained lamb, beef and pork.

Officers revisited the restaurant in February 2007 and took away two formal samples for analysis, a takeaway dish Lamb Shikampuri and frozen pre-cooked lamb balls. The two samples were again sent for testing by the County Analyst and found to contain “substantial” amounts of beef.

When questioned Rhamon confirmed to Trading Standards he was unable to give details of where the meat from the samples had come from as the restaurant had more than one meat supplier. He admitted that they had no way of ensuring that the correct meat went into the dish.

The Monsoon Restaurant was fined £800 and ordered to pay costs of £500 at Worcester Magistrates Court on June 25.

Andrew Wright, Enforcement Officer, said: “The presence of a substantial quantity of beef in a dish described as only containing lamb mince is not only misleading to customers, but would also have a major impact on those customers who avoid beef for religious reasons. Also the lack of traceability in the production of this dish and the failure to keep records of supplies or suppliers is very serious. Especially in the event of food poisoning or other food safety issues, as it makes it impossible to trace back the unsafe food supplier. Had the restaurant been able to name their suppliers in all likelihood the case would have been taken against the meat producers.”