A crisp firm has been fined after almost 600 people fell ill with salmonella from eating ‘Mr Porky’ pork scratchings. 

Tayto Group Ltd was prosecuted following an outbreak of the illness linked to its factory in Westhoughton, Bolton. 

Cases were confirmed across the UK, including in the North West, South East, Wales, the West Midlands, the South West, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

Symptoms experienced by those who contracted the illness included diarrhoea, stomach cramps and vomiting, Bolton Crown Court heard.

One woman said she has ‘never been so ill’ after getting salmonella from a box of the contaminated product. 

A judge fined the company £153,000, while it was also ordered to pay more than £300,000 in costs after group action was brought against the firm. 

Victim Ruanda Davis, from Cardiff, was hospitalised for five days with severe vomiting, diarrhoea and dehydration after consuming the snack in June 2021. 

Ms Davis, who has impaired mobility, said she struggled to cope with her symptoms, causing her to fall over and suffer a head injury when trying to get out of bed. 

An ambulance was called, and Ms Davis was admitted to hospital for five days, receiving IV fluids to treat her dehydration.

Ruanda Davis, from Cardiff, was hospitalised for five days with severe vomiting, diarrhoea and dehydration after consuming pork scratchings in June 2021 

The Tayto Group Ltd factory building on Great Bank Road in Westhoughton

While her vomiting subsided, she continued to suffer from diarrhoea and abnormal bowel function for almost a year after her discharge from hospital.

Ms Davis was among the group to receive compensation in the civil case brought by public health lawyers at Irwin Mitchell.

Speaking for the first time about her illness, the 64-year-old said: ‘I’ve never been so ill in my life. Even after I came home, I wasn’t the same. 

‘My health and confidence have suffered, and even now years on from my ordeal I’m still a lot more careful about what I eat.   

‘This experience has changed my life. The night I fell ill was terrifying – I was alone, struggling to get out of bed because of my disability, and ended up injuring myself which is how my daughter found me before being rushed to hospital.

‘One of the most worrying things is that what happened to me didn’t appear to be an isolated incident and many others appear to have suffered.’ 

Ms Davis said she is trying to raise awareness about ‘how serious food poisoning can be’. 

‘By sharing my story I hope food manufacturers take every possible step to keep their products safe and protect the public,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t want anyone else to have gone through what I have.’

One woman from Hampshire, who purchased and ate the product, was hospitalised after suffering from severe diarrhoea and vomiting, Bolton Crown Court heard. She was still feeling unwell three months after her initial complaint.

A man who bought the pork scratchings in Leicester was ill for a week and complained of similar symptoms. A total of 35 people went to hospital for treatment, and 12 people were admitted.

Mr Porky products, made by Tayto Group Ltd in a factory in Bolton 

It is believed to be the first prosecution of its type in the UK involving genome sequencing, a system used to identify where such an illness originated. 

The court was told the case also involved ‘one of the largest’ product recalls dealt with by authorities in the UK.

The family run firm, which employs 1,500 people, pleaded guilty to two offences, one of placing unsafe food on the market and another of failing to ensure that food was protected against contamination. 

The period of the charges ran from July 2021 to August 2021, but the outbreak continued in the following months, it was said.

Prosecuting, Richard Barraclough KC said it appeared that a ‘number of defects had been allowed to develop over a period of time’.

It was found that the outbreak originated from a number of issues within the factory, including a failure to effectively separate areas where raw and cooked meat was stored. The Food Standards Agency issued a product recall notice in August 2021.

Mr Barraclough said an ‘enormous amount of work has been done within the factory’ since, and that there had been a ‘high level of cooperation’ from the firm. 

Defending Tayto, Jonathan Goulding said: ‘My client apologies unreservedly for the harm caused by these offences.

‘It fully accepts it fell short of its usual high standards.’ He said three senior members of the company attended the court hearing, and that they ‘take it very seriously’.

Company bosses were ‘shocked at the whole situation’, he said. Mr Goulding said the company has spent more than £800,000 on remedial work at the factory and has done a ‘great deal’ to enact improvements.

Mr Goulding said the firm has reached the highest safety accreditations in its Bolton plant and at its other locations. 

Judge Abigail Hudson said she accepted that at the time the company would have had no reason to have identified some of the factors responsible for the outbreak.

Its factory layout had been inherited from another company and it had been approved by Bolton Council, the judge said.

She noted the company had voluntarily stopped production after the outbreak was identified and carried out a deep clean, and that it had acknowledged the ‘defects’ when environmental health officers attended.

The judge fined Tayto £153,000, while the company was also ordered to pay costs of £309,136.09.