Wolverhampton’s Asda store has been fined £16,000 for having out-of-date food in its staff canteen.

The Molineux supermarket was found guilty of keeping six items of food that were passed their sell-by-date, following a trial at Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court.

District Judge Michael Wheeler fined Asda and ordered it to pay £2,403 of costs to Wolverhampton Council.

Passing his guilty verdict, Judge Wheeler did not believe assurances from Asda that the items were not being stored for human consumption.

The court heard how environmental health officers discovered the items in a refrigerator when carrying out an inspection on 11 November 2008.

The six items – including two packets of waterchesnuts and bamboo stirfry, one pack of chilli con carne and a container of sweet chilli stirfry – were between one and 10 days past their use by date.

Store general manager Jonathan Clements, who has been in charge of the Jack Hayward Way branch for 11 months, claimed any food that is not consumed by its use by date should have been thrown away.

He said: “It should not have been in the fridge past its use by date. Our catering staff are under no pressure to use food which is past its best, as there is no waste budget for the canteen.”

Mr Clements added staff are trained to check the dates of products before using them and that, in his opinion, the food would never have been served to staff.

Tony Watkin, prosecuting, reckoned the food, purchased from the main store by canteen twice each day, was either bought when it was out of date, or had been kept in the fridge too long.

Miles Bennett, defending Asda Stores Ltd, insisted the items would never have been served to staff and changes to procedures for checking the use by dates of food were already in place when environmental health visited.