Owner Of Royal Food Bought Food From ‘Dirty, Unrefrigerated Van’

Swindon Borough Council investigators ordered Royly Da Silva, the owner of catering company Royal Food, to destroy half a ton of food after witnessing him buying unmarked bags of raw meat from a “dirty and unrefrigerated” van owned by a dog food supplier.

The local authority had been investigating the pet food supplier but took action against the chef after he admitted he bought all his meat from the supplier and that he didn’t know where it came from.

Inspectors also discovered a chest freezer full of food intended to be cooked at a London festival due to be attended by 15,000 people when they visited Da Silva’s lock up.  They revealed in court that is was covered in congealed blood and dead insects and that food containers were covered in dirt and cobwebs.

Irwin Mitchell’s specialist illness lawyers are currently helping thousands of clients who have contracted illness due to contaminated foodstuffs including dozens of victims of illness (including E-coli, Salmonella and Shigella ) at the Street Spice food festival in Newcastle in 2013, which affected over 300 people, and also one client who contracted Campylobacter, and later developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, after eating from a food stall at Glastonbury in 2014.

Amandeep Dhillon, an expert Public Health lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, said:

Expert Opinion

These reports are extremely concerning and we welcome the swift action taken by Swindon Borough Council to destroy this food, which was clearly not stored under hygienic conditions. <br/> <br/>“The fact that the produce was due to be cooked and sold to consumers at a festival attended by 15,000 people is alarming as it may have resulted in a serious illness outbreak. <br/> <br/>“We can only hope this incident acts as a clear reminder to the food industry to ensure the food hygiene and safety standards are followed and any food being supplied to consumers is handled and prepared in the appropriate conditions. Amandeep Dhillon - Partner