A bakery where surfaces were swarming with fruit flies and the walls were mouldy has been shut down for its appalling hygiene.

Waltham Forest Council officers, who visited on 17 March and took the business to court six days later, said it was “one of the worst-run food premises they had ever encountered”.

A tip-off had led the officers to the premises of Flour Power Ltd, which was based in a warehouse unit in Argall Avenue, Leyton, East London.

The bakery had been selling bread to retailers out of a van for six months, although the owner, Süleyman Çiçek, refused to say to which businesses.

Officers were horrified to find dead mice, mouse droppings, moths in the flour, and no running water inside the premises apart from one basin in the toilet.

On 23 March, Thames Magistrates Court awarded the council full costs of more than £1,000 and granted a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Order.

The order, issued when there is an imminent risk of injury to health, requires a business to close immediately and to remain closed until an Environmental Health Officer is satisfied that sufficient measures have been taken to eliminate the severe hygiene problems identified.

 

A business owner will be required to carry out extensive works, often both structural and deep cleaning, to his premises in order to secure the removal of the Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Order. Officials will then re-inspect and when satisfied there the risks have been eliminated, they will issue a certificate enabling them to re-open.

Flour Power Ltd, which traded under the name of Çiçek’s old company Harvest Bakehouse, was one of three Waltham Forest businesses to appear before the court in mid March over poor hygiene.

Indian restaurant Insu Inn in Chingford Town Centre and Walthamstow Chinese takeaway Oriental Kitchen were also successfully prosecuted by Waltham Forest Council over “unsanitary conditions” and a “serious risk of cross-contamination” due to a lack of cleaning.

 

Photos © Waltham Forest Council