More than 50 food safety failures at a Morrisons in-store bakery in South Wales has resulted in the retailer being fined nearly £750k.
A routine inspection of the Cwmbran site by Torfaen council environment health officers in August 2024 found multiple hygiene breaches in the bakery, including poor cleanliness, unclean equipment, inadequate staff supervision, and failures in food safety management.
Officers identified 51 gaps in the store’s food safety management system, which management were said to have been aware of for over a month. The bakery was immediately closed for a deep clean.
At Newport Magistrates’ Court on 7 May 2026, Morrisons plead guilty to four food hygiene offences at its Cwmbran site. It was fined £737,000 (reduced from £1.1m due to an early guilty plea) and ordered to pay the council’s costs of £11,221.38 plus a £2,000 victim surcharge.
In handing down her sentence, district judge Sophie Toms remarked that the case was not just about a couple of rogue employees, there were serious and systemic failures throughout all levels of the organisation.
“The whole team would have been able to see the state that the bakery was getting in to,” said the judge. “Even with food hygiene training, there should have been better supervision and thankfully the local authority Environmental Health Officers walked in.”
Judge Toms noted that the supermarket had risked the health, wellbeing and safety of loyal customers, potentially even placing lives at risk. “This is one of the biggest supermarkets, it is family run, well trusted and give the impression of caring. They failed to take action,” she added.
Morrisons issued a statement that it was very disappointed in the condition of the bakery in 2024, saying it fell far short of the standard customers expect and that it should provide.
“This was a single local issue which was dealt with immediately by working closely with the council,” commented a spokesperson. “The improvement made has been consistently maintained.”
At the start of 2026, Morrisons announced the closure of its Rathbones bakery in Wakefield, placing up to 115 jobs at risk of redundancy. The 28,000 sq ft site has since been acquired by Warburtons – the UK’s biggest bread brand also purchased the former Roberts Bakery factory in Ilkeston last year.
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