UK supermarket operator and Wal-Mart subsidiary Asda has been slapped with a £21,000 (US$32,500) fine after wood, glass and other items were found in bread it sold.

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The company pleaded guilty at a magistrate’s court to nine counts of breaching food hygiene laws, and three of having a foreign body in food at the company’s store in Sutton, south-west London.


The first complaint arose in March 2001, when a customer reported finding a metal chain inside a hot cross bun. Customers went on to report finding a jagged piece of wood in a wholemeal loaf and glass in a French stick. Environmental health officers inspected the bakery at the Sutton store and found ovens with missing screws that could have fallen into product, shattered glass from an oven bulb on the floor and flour being stored incorrectly.

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