{"id":75615,"date":"2016-11-01T16:15:32","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T16:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=063e473a8c5c649f962b23c17f51dd18"},"modified":"2016-11-01T16:15:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T16:15:32","slug":"news-story-yorkshire-fresh-produce-retailer-fined-after-failing-to-meet-marketing-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=75615","title":{"rendered":"News story: Yorkshire fresh produce retailer fined after failing to meet marketing standards"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>A Leeds based retailer has been ordered to pay almost \u00a33,400 for displaying, offering for sale and selling rotten fruit and vegetables that failed to meet minimum quality standards.<\/p>\n<p>Mohammad Ozair Siddique, Director of Leeds City Stores Ltd. appeared at Leeds Magistrates Court on 28 October 2016, following a seven month long investigation by the Rural Payments Agency\u2019s (<abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr>) Horticultural Marketing Inspectors (<abbr title=\"Horticultural Marketing Inspectors\">HMI<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n<p>A final <abbr title=\"Horticultural Marketing Inspectors\">HMI<\/abbr> inspection conducted on 12 May 2016, found displays in breach of the <abbr title=\"European Union\">EU<\/abbr> marketing rules for fresh produce quality and labelling, including rotten loquats and peaches.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Unlabelled peaches on display for sale with 43% rotting\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/57735\/Peaches1.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption>Unlabelled peaches on display for sale with 43% rotting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In court Mr Siddique pleaded guilty to the charges on behalf of the company and was fined \u00a31,000, \u00a32,293 costs and a \u00a3100 victim surcharge.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Caldwell, <abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr> Operations Director said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Concerted efforts were made by <abbr title=\"Horticultural Marketing Inspectors\">HMI<\/abbr> to work closely with the business through face-to-face meetings, verbal warnings and formal written notices, all aimed at achieving improved compliance from the business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Unfortunately such advice is not always heeded and when all other options have been exhausted we will resort to the use of criminal sanction to bring about a required change in behaviour.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"background\">Background<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Leeds City Stores Ltd. is based at 63 Shepherds Lane, Leeds, LS8 5AT.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Horticultural Marketing Inspectors are part of the Rural Payments Agency (<abbr title=\"Rural Payments Agency\">RPA<\/abbr>). The inspectors are responsible for the enforcement of the <abbr title=\"European Union\">EU<\/abbr> marketing standards for fresh fruit, vegetables, salad crops, nuts and cultivated mushroom, throughout England and Wales, wherever fresh produce is grown, imported, exported, bought or sold.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fresh produce retailer fined following HMI investigation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}