City centre food business owner banned and fined

A business owner has been banned from operating a food business and ordered to pay thousands of pounds worth of costs following continued poor hygiene conditions and food safety regulation breaches, despite previous convictions.

Appearing at York Magistrates, Di Wu, 35, of Walney Road, York, pleaded guilty to multiple food safety charges for Hong Kong Chop House, 33 Swinegate, York. Wu is the director of Infinity Hardheadedness, the business operator of Hong Kong Chop House.

City of York Council environmental health officers carried out two food safety inspections at Hong Kong Chop House between December 2018 and February 2019. During this period the business failed to achieve a food hygiene rating higher than one, and was broadly non-compliant with food safety regulations for a period of five years.

During the food safety visits, environmental health officer identified issues including poor equipment and premises cleanliness, failing to protect food against contamination, failure to implement and maintain food safety procedures and failure to comply with an earlier hygiene improvement notice issued October 2017.

Wu and Infinity Hardheadedness were prosecuted in August 2018 for failure to comply with five hygiene improvement notices, failure to protect food against contamination and failure to keep premises clean and in good condition at Hong Kong Chop House.

Appearing at York Magistrates, Wu was issued with a hygiene prohibition order preventing him from running a food business, which is the second order issued by City of York Council this year. He was also ordered to pay costs totalling £4,430.

Councillor Andrew Waller, executive member for Economy and Strategic Planning, said: “York is home to a variety of food establishments and we will continue to ensure that standards are met and that customers are confident in the quality of the food they are being served in the city.

“The takeaway was given advice and multiple opportunities to improve, which it repeatedly failed to abide by.”