Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court heard how Al Noor Ltd failed to notify port authorities in Suffolk over the spice shipment from Pakistan in May 2022, meaning the shipment was not properly checked.
Southall-based Al Noor Ltd was ordered to pay a fine, victim surcharge, and costs totalling £9,424, while director Ahmed Akhlaq was ordered to pay a total of £3,285 over flouting food safety checks.
Shipments containing these imported spices must be notified to the authorities and sampled, but Al Noor Ltd failed to do so, council officials said.
Cllr Kamaljit Nagpal, the council’s cabinet member for decent living incomes, said: “Obstructing food safety officers is a very serious offence and is not taken lightly by the council.
It contained various ‘high risk’ spice mixes from Pakistan, Ealing Council said, which had been potentially contaminated with aflatoxins – carcinogens linked to liver cancer.
