Woolworths New Zealand has been fined $33,000 after admitting failures over a rat infestation at its South Dunedin supermarket.
The company was sentenced in the Dunedin District Court today before Judge David Robinson after admitting a charge of breaching the Food Act 2014.
The charge, brought by New Zealand Food Safety, carries a maximum penalty of $200,000.
The court heard the store was closed for 18 days in February 2024 after repeated sightings and captures of rodents.
In sentencing, Robinson said the case was not about a failure to detect the infestation, but a failure to respond appropriately.
“There certainly seems to be no issue with the awareness of the rat infestation,” he said.
“This is a situation about the response once the infestation had been identified.”
An agreed summary of facts stated there were 112 rat sightings logged by staff from October to December 2023, with about 10 rats captured over the period.
Despite the increasing frequency of sightings between October and January, the issue was not escalated to Woolworths’ food safety team until January 19.
“That is the failure for which the defendant is prosecuted,” Robinson said.
He found the infestation had been primarily managed as a maintenance issue, rather than in accordance with the company’s food safety plan.
“It appears the lack of escalation can be traced back to a lack of understanding around the process,” he said.
“There was a systemic failure.”
Robinson stressed he was not criticising individual staff, but the company’s systems had failed to ensure proper escalation, despite appropriate policies being in place.
The court heard rats pose a significant public health risk, carrying pathogens that can cause serious illness in humans.
“By their very nature, supermarkets are attractive environments for rats,” Robinson said.
While no illness was linked to the offending, he said a substantial number of customers were exposed to risk over a period of about four months.
“The potential harm in this case was serious,” he said.
In assessing the penalty, Robinson adopted a starting point of $55,000, reflecting the scale of the business, the duration of the offending, and the risk to the public.
He then applied discounts totalling 40% for Woolworths’ early guilty plea, co-operation with authorities, lack of prior offending, and remedial actions.
Those actions included increasing pest control resources and overhauling food safety processes.
Counsel for Woolworths, Joe Edwards, said the company accepted the failures were systemic and apologised unreservedly.
He said no individual staff member was being blamed.
“The procedures were in place, they simply weren’t known,” he said.
Edwards said Woolworths had since taken significant steps to improve its systems, aiming for a “gold standard” approach to food safety.
Judge Robinson acknowledged the company had suffered financial loss and reputational damage, but said the sentence needed to hold it accountable and deter similar offending.
“Today is about holding the defendant to account for the potential harm to consumers and the community, and to deter others from committing similar offending,” he said.
The South Dunedin store, formerly operating as Countdown, remained closed for nearly three weeks while pest control measures were carried out.
Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.