Meatball company to pay $45,000 and cost of ambulance

An Auckland businessman and his company whose preservative-laced meatballs nearly killed a man have been fined $45,000 - and ordered to pay the victim $67 for the cost of his ambulance ride.

Amit Prakash and U & S Chand Investments, of which he is a director, also have to pay $400 towards the cost of the investigation of their offending.

They were sentenced in the Manukau District Court yesterday after previously pleading guilty to three charges under the Food Act relating to preservatives in meatballs or mince.

The meatballs were 4.3 per cent sodium nitrite, a preservative permitted in cured meats such as salami but not in meatballs, says the Food Safety Authority, which brought the prosecution.

And mince was found with sulphur dioxide at more than eight times the maximum permitted level.

The meats were prepared in the butchery at Food World Otara, a shop bought by Prakash's company in 2004 - just weeks before the meatball mistake - and later sold. Before he owned it, the shop was at one stage closed by the Manukau City Council.

The 47-year-old man who nearly died bought eight meatballs, grilled two and ate one, said Judge Charles Blackie.

"The first, the complainant said, tasted bitter. He disguised the taste by using ample quantities of red sauce. He then discarded the spare meatball into the rubbish bin."

An hour later he vomited. When his daughter came home she found him unconscious.

He was taken by ambulance to Middlemore Hospital, where his blood was described as chocolate brown in colour and he was diagnosed as being severely short of oxygen due to sodium nitrite poisoning.

He was given a chemical antidote, made a full recovery and was discharged after three days.

But the judge said that without his daughter's prompt intervention and the hospital treatment, "the complainant could have died of poisoning".

Citing a victim impact statement by the man, Judge Blackie said: "As far as he's concerned, this was a very close thing."

Health authorities investigating the meatball poisoning also found the mince with excessive sulphur dioxide.

The sodium nitrite powder was stored in a bag labelled "poison".

It was said to have been mistakenly added to the meatball mix by a butcher's assistant who spoke little English.

But the judge said that could not be confirmed because the man was apparently an overstayer who was no longer in New Zealand.

The Food Safety Authority, represented by Catherine Knight, had said the defendants' failures included not making sure the butchery staff understood its recipes.

Judge Blackie acknowledged mitigating factors, including the fact that the defendants were trying to improve the business by implementing a quality-control plan, but had wrongly not attended to food safety matters at the outset.

He said the maximum penalty for each charge was a $100,000 fine or a year's prison.

Prakash now has food premises carrying an A-grade hygiene certificate from the Auckland City Council.