An Aldershot butcher who displayed mouldy food for sale in some of the worst conditions ever seen by council health inspectors has been handed a raft of formal cautions.

Daniel Ward, the proprietor of Ellis Fine Foods in Lower Farnham Road, admitted seven food hygiene offences following a routine inspection by Rushmoor Borough Council environmental health officers in January.

The cautions were issued last week for offences of displaying mouldy products and food that were past their use-by dates, for failing to implement a food safety management programme for the business and for not keeping business premises in a clean enough condition.

The other sanctions were imposed on Mr Ward for not maintaining his premises to an adequate standard, not keeping equipment that comes into contact with food clean enough and failing to protect food against sources of contamination.

Environmental health officers deemed the business as having ‘unsatisfactory’ hygiene conditions following their initial visit on January 28.

Mr Ward, who has subsequently sold his business and ceased trading himself on Friday, shut down his shop for three days while cleanliness conditions were improved.

The shop was re-opened on January 31 after officers revisited the premises and deemed the hygiene standards as ‘satisfactory’.

David Quirk, the council’s head of environmental health, said: “The conditions at Ellis Fine Foods were some of the worst I have seen in my 25 years’ experience in this field.

“They were dreadful and the only reason why we have not decided to take the matter further is because Mr Ward sold his business.

“My officers have acted swiftly and appropriately to deal with the genuine cause for concern to the public health created by this string of offences.

“This issuing of formal cautions in this matter should not be taken lightly by Mr Ward as any repetition of food safety offences could have led to these matters being taken into consideration by the courts.

“I know that he recognises that what he did was not acceptable and he has accepted the cautions.”

Speaking to the Mail last week, Mr Ward said business pressures had caused his shop’s hygiene standards to slip.

“Things did get out of hand as I was short-staffed,” he said. “The council were not happy with the conditions but they’ve been put right now.

“I’ve sold up and my last day is Friday. I was under pressure at the time and it just got beyond me really.”

Mr Ward said he was now going to go on a year-long holiday in Vietnam.

“Things are up to scratch now and I’m looking forward to my holiday,” he added.

A three-strong team of environmental health inspectors frequent more than 600 food outlets in Rushmoor to assess their cleanliness standards.

Mr Ward’s business had been displayed as being ‘unsatisfac-tory’ on www.safe2eat.com, a council website where resi-dents can monitor outlets’ performances when assessed by environmental health officials. Ellis Fine Foods is currently displayed as ‘satisfactory’.

At the time of going to press, four other Aldershot food outlets were classed ‘unsatisfactory’ on the Safe2Eat website.

They are the Co-op in Ash Road, Bhetghat Gurkha Restaurant in High Street, Pizza King Curry King in Station Road and Yellow River in Grosvenor Road.

Mr Quirk added: “It is an important issue for the public to know that outlets are being monitored, but the small number of ‘unsatisfactory’ businesses shows that the problem is not widespread.

“I do not think that I would be doing my job properly if there was a high number, but at the moment more than 99% are rated as ‘excellent’ or ‘satisfactory’.

“I hope that other businesses will take this as a message and that they will take notice of the action that we will take if hygiene conditions are found to be unsatisfactory.

“The council is putting quite a lot of resources into local food safety issues.”

Cllr Stephen Masterson, Rushmoor Borough Council’s cabinet member for safety and regulation, added: “This is another example of where the council has acted swiftly to deal with offenders under food safety legislation and I fully support the actions of the council’s environmental health officers in this matter.

“I would urge residents to use the Safe2Eat website, as it provides current information on the hygiene status of businesses and I would ask our residents to take this website into account when deciding where to buy food.”