A LAYBY café owner has been banned from running any food business after a routine inspection found dirty conditions, mouldy food and food past its use-by date.

Mary Jean Felstead, the operator of Jeans Café at Neuadd-Ddu layby near Llangurig, appeared in Llandrindod Wells Magistrates Court last Wednesday, in a prosecution led by the council’s Environmental Health Team.

Magistrates heard that the council’s environmental health officers carried out a routine inspection in March and found dirty conditions, accumulations of refuse in the kitchen, poor food handling practices, a lack of food safety procedures, mouldy unfit food and food past its use-by date.

The café now has a new name and is under new ownership.

Felstead pleaded guilty to five offences under food hygiene legislation including: Failure to maintain the premise in a clean condition; failure to ensure all articles, fittings and equipment with which food comes into contact are effectively cleaned and where necessary disinfected; placing of food on the market that was unsafe, in that the food was past its use by dates or in a mouldy condition; failure to implement and maintain a permanent procedure on the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point principles; failure to remove and prevent accumulation of food waste from the kitchen area.

Felstead was fined £120 for each offence by the court, £600 in total. She was also ordered to pay a £30 surcharge and £750 costs, bring the total to £1,380.

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