**Asda Hit with Over £650,000 Fine for Selling Dozens of Out-of-Date Foods in Cardiff Stores**
Major supermarket chain Asda has been fined a total of £657,115 after admitting to dozens of breaches of food safety regulations at two branches in Cardiff, with more than 100 out-of-date food products found on sale across a four-month period. The incidents, which involved perishable items such as meat and dairy, occurred in Asda’s Leckwith Road, Canton, and Pentwyn stores.
Cardiff Magistrates’ Court heard details of the offences after Asda entered guilty pleas during a hearing on 21 May 2025. Prosecutors representing Cardiff Council’s Trading Standards team described several enforcement visits to the supermarket’s city stores earlier in the year. During inspections at the Leckwith Road branch in January and May 2024, officers discovered food items being sold past their best-before and use-by dates, including products which were up to seven days expired on the first occasion, and six further items past their use-by dates on a later visit.
The investigation widened following a consumer complaint to the council, focusing attention on the Pentwyn store. Inspections carried out there on 25 March and 24 April 2024 led to the discovery of 25 expired products during the first visit – notably, 11 items were found to be 15 days past their permitted date – and a further 48 out-of-date items uncovered weeks later, including stock more than 12 days past its shelf life.
In total, 115 expired food products were identified across the two stores over a four-month window. These repeated discoveries raised concerns over the adequacy of Asda’s internal procedures for monitoring and removing perishable goods from its shelves.
Asda’s legal team emphasised to the court that the company takes food safety matters with utmost seriousness. Ian McDonald, representing the supermarket, reported that Asda had since introduced a comprehensive new system for checking expiry dates, involving a £1 million consultation and over £600,000 spent on training their 105,000-strong workforce. These new protocols, he said, had succeeded in preventing any further similar incidents since implementation.
Additional remedial measures included senior management visits, colleague briefings, and human resources interventions, reflecting the scale with which the supermarket sought to address the failings. Nonetheless, Judge Charlotte Murphy determined that existing systems at the time “were not sufficient,” pointing to the breadth and frequency of expired items being found for more than five months and in multiple stores. She did note, however, that the public health risk was considered “low.”
The penalties imposed totalled £160,000 per offence for breaches of the General Food Regulations 2004, amounting to £640,000. Additional court costs brought the final sum payable to £657,115, with Asda ordered to settle within 28 days.
Under UK law, ‘use-by’ dates are mandatory on high-risk perishable products, and it is illegal to sell such items after they have expired. Trading standards authorities stress that the regulations are in place to protect consumers from potential harm.
Following the court’s decision, Councillor Norma Mackie, Cardiff Council’s cabinet member for Shared Regulatory Services, stated: “Consumers should be confident that the food on sale at stores is safe to eat. It is essential that robust systems are in place to prevent the sale of food past its use-by date. In this case, Asda fell significantly short of the required standards expected. The systems that they had in place were clearly inadequate, and we hope that Asda has now taken the necessary steps to rectify these failings to ensure that such incidents do not occur again.”
This is not an isolated incident for the supermarket giant. Asda faced fines of £410,000 in April 2025 after two Cornwall branches were prosecuted for similar offences, and in October 2024, it was ordered to pay £250,000 for breaches at stores in Derby, with some products reportedly as much as six months out of date.
The series of fines serves as a cautionary reminder to food retailers of all sizes about the heightened scrutiny and potential consequences of lapses in food safety, with industry observers noting the importance of robust internal compliance in maintaining public trust.
Asda’s case comes amid a wider regulatory crackdown aiming to improve consumer confidence in the food retail sector, ensuring that strict standards are being met on UK high streets and supermarket aisles alike. The chain’s response, and the investment in new safety protocols, may set a precedent other major retailers feel compelled to follow.