CONSUMER watchdogs found fromage frais and other milk products for sale after their sell-by date in a York area village store, magistrates heard.

Trading standards officers were following up a complaint from the public about the Yorkshire Co-operative Society shop in Main Street, Bishopthorpe.

Liz Levett, prosecuting for City of York Council, told York magistrates that on July 23, 2002, a member of her department saw a pack of fromage frais for sale in the shop five days after shop staff should have removed it from the shelves as being no longer safe to eat.

The officer also found two other packs of fromage frais and a milk shake which were past their sell-by date.

Shop records revealed that staff had apparently not carried out daily checks to ensure that non-fresh products were removed from the shelves.

The Yorkshire Co-operative Society Ltd, of Sunbridge Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty to four charges of offering goods for sale after their sell-by date.

Its lawyer, William Hudson, admitted the company had three pages of previous convictions, but only one for selling past a sell-by date in North Yorkshire, for which it had been cautioned.

Magistrates fined the company £400 plus £858.41 prosecution costs.

Mr Hudson said the Bishopthorpe offences were an isolated incident, possibly caused by staff inadvertently transferring non-fresh items from a storeroom fridge to the in-store freezers when under pressure.

The product checks may have been carried out but not properly recorded.

The company had since tightened up on product checking and given staff at the store extra training.

Updated: 11:28 Friday, December 13, 2002