Tesco has released a statement after the supermarket chain was fined £7.56 million for selling out of date food at three of its stores.

The fine was given after Tesco admitted to 22 breaches of the Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations between 2016 and 2017.

The company was given the penalty by a judge at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on Monday (19 April) and ordered to pay a further £95,000 in prosecution costs of £95,500, said Birmingham City Council.

Tesco was also ordered to pay a £170 victim surcharge.

Complaints were received by the local authority about food being sold after its use-by date, which then led to an investigation and the prosecution by the city council’s environmental health department.

Food inspectors visited three of Tesco’s food retail premises, with out of date items found at two Tesco Express stores – one at Carr’s Lane in Birmingham city centre and the second at 175 Linden Road in the Bournville area – as well a Tesco Metro in Bristol Road South, which has since been rebranded under Tesco’s discount chain, Jack’s.

‘The safety of our customers is always our priority’

Tesco said it was “disappointed” that out-of-date products were found on supermarket shelves, but said that it has “robust procedures” in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

A Tesco spokesman said: “We’re disappointed that a small number of out-of-date products were found on sale in three stores in 2016/17.

“The safety of our customers is always our priority and these incidents are not representative of the high standards of safety and quality we expect in Tesco stores.

“We took immediate action to address this at the time and we want to reassure our customers that we have robust procedures in place to make sure that this doesn’t happen.”