Coronation Street Speed Daal food poisoning scandal could spell serious trouble
Coronation Street’s Speed Daal faces a food poisoning scandal, but what would really happen if a restaurant served meat beyond its use-by date?
Speed Daal faces a nightmare in upcoming Coronation Street scenes when Tracy storms into the restaurant and accuses Leanne of poisoning her family.
The situation becomes considerably more serious when Ollie checks the kitchen and discovers the meat served the previous night was past its use-by date.
Leanne realises Nick handled the delivery and begins wondering whether it was really an innocent mistake.
What would happen in a real restaurant?
The Food Standards Agency makes an important distinction between use-by and best-before dates. A use-by date concerns food safety, while a best-before date concerns the quality of food.
The FSA says food businesses must not supply or serve food after its use-by date. Its guidance warns that food beyond that date could be unsafe even when it looks and smells normal.
GOV.UK also states that selling food after its use-by date is a criminal offence.
That does not mean we can predict whether Leanne, Nick or Speed Daal would face action because any real investigation would depend on exactly what happened and the evidence available.
For Leanne, there is another problem. Nick soon admits they can no longer afford their usual supplier, while complaints threaten the restaurant's reputation.
Was the dodgy delivery simply a costly mistake, or is Leanne right to suspect something more deliberate?
Coronation Street airs on ITV1 and streams on ITVX. Images: ITV.
Source: Food Standards Agency and GOV.UK.
