Food Shops Policy & Process For Alcohol Expired Waste UK

[Sunnygirl1]

Hello All,

My friend asked me to ask on her behalf if anyone can help her, please

She is trying to find the information she needs for something that has happened in the shop.

She couldn't find it on Google or YouTube. The shop is hiding this information from her and is not giving it to her.

Thank you

Her questions are:

1. What is the right procedure for the food store to follow when an alcoholic cocktail's date expires tomorrow?

2. As there is a minimum price on Alcohol since 2015 in England & Wales it obviously can't be reduced to be sold cheaper, then surely and logically it can't be given to customers in-store for free?

Thank you

England doesn't have minimum unit pricing, Scotland and Wales do.

I see. Thank you. Maybe there are people from Scotland and Wales who know and can help.

I found some information when there were Covid19 restrictions

www.gov.uk/guidance/destroying-spoilt-beer-during-coronavirus-covid-19

Goods with a Best before Date can be sold for 1 month after that date. It's up to the company if they choose to reduce those products. In Scotland and wales there is a minimum pricing law for alcohol. This is a min of 50p per unit. As long as it isn't sold for less that this they can reduce it. As with everything though you don't have a right to buy it at a discounted price.
As to giving it away for free I have no idea if that would be an issue. I would guess it isn't illegal otherwise how would any place that includes a drink with a meal get past that?

www.wales.nhs.uk/sites3/documents/49/11waste.pdf

ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/alcohol/Forum/docs/alcohol_lib23_en.pdf

www.gov.uk/guidance/destroying-spoilt-beer-during-coronavirus-covid-19

this link was to do with pubs/brewers etc getting rid of beer/cider they couldnt sell as everywhere was shut due to lockdown

Sorry, I can't get the first to open. The second is too long yo read. If you already have evidence of what the answers to your questions are, what exactly are you asking about?

I am asking the same 2 + 1 questions if anyone knows about Scotland & Wales
Food Stores Policy & Process For Alcohol Expired Waste UK
.

1. What is the right procedure for the food store to follow when an alcoholic cocktail's date expires tomorrow?

2. As there is a minimum price on Alcohol since 2015 in Wales & Scotland it obviously can't be reduced to be sold cheaper than 50p per unit, then surely and logically it can't be given to customers in-store for free and must be thrown away? The expiry date on the alcohol cocktail was tomorrow date and it was given in sore for free. Was it allowed to be done legally?

3. There was NO SIGN it was an alcoholic drink while it was given away. As I understand the UNDER 25 sign must have been displayed there. The shop assistant realized after 5 minutes it was an alcoholic drink because THERE WAS NO SIGN FROM THE MANAGER who set it up to give it away and the alcoholic cocktail looked to the shop assistant like a soft drink until he looked at it properly, has read the description and 4% alcohol amount and realized it wasn't. For 5 minutes from the start of giving it away, he thought it was a soft drink (as bright and colorful) and something happened after that.

After the situation gets resolved by the end of the week, I'll be able to tell you what has happened to get the full picture.

If you'd explained that right at the beginning things would have been a lot simpler

Why is this in the Relationships section?

Your friend should seek advice from an employment lawyer, presuming it's her family member who mistakenly gave alcohol to someone underage and is now in hot water.

So are you saying that a shop assistant gave away a still in date drink they presumed to be non-alcoholic, but which was actually alcoholic, to someone who may have been under 18? And this is going to be dealt with at the end of the week?

So you're looking to know if it's legal to give away alcohol? And if an over25 sign has to be displayed in the shop

I dont know why it wouldn't be legal to give away any food or drink from your own shop, so I'm unsure why alcohol would be different.

The challenge 25 policy is not law, its just a sensible practice. So there wouldn't need to be a poster up. The shop must legally have some sort of age verification policy in place for employees to challenge people that look under age. The employees must be made aware of that policy.

@chipsandpeas

www.gov.uk/guidance/destroying-spoilt-beer-during-coronavirus-covid-19

this link was to do with pubs/brewers etc getting rid of beer/cider they couldn't sell as everywhere was shut due to lockdown

Yes, I understand it. I thought I might find some useful information for my questions there.

@LetitiaLeghorn
So are you saying that a shop assistant gave away a still in date drink they presumed to be non-alcoholic, but which was actually alcoholic, to someone who may have been under 18? And this is going to be dealt with at the end of the week?

So you're looking to know if it's legal to give away alcohol? And if an over25 sign has to be displayed in the shop

I don't know why it wouldn't be legal to give away any food or drink from your own shop, so I'm unsure why alcohol would be different.

The challenge 25 policy is not law, its just a sensible practice. So there wouldn't need to be a poster up. The shop must legally have some sort of age verification policy in place for employees to challenge people that look underage. The employees must be made aware of that policy.

Of course, the shop assistant has been trained every 6 months on Alcohol Selling Law and he never broke any rules or trading laws.

The shop assistant gave it to Mum with a 12-year-old child. To Mum only. Literally in Mum's hand. He gave the drinks to ADULTS ONLY. The child had it outside the store. It is PARENTAL NEGLECT. The Mum should know and read what her underage child consumes. The child took it from Mum as it can happen. She never checked what drink it was.

There are 2 GROSS misconduct Failures here:

1. The Manager NOT PUTTING A Sign and NOT Inform the shop assistant to warn him it's an alcohol product! It DOES NOT MATTER if it's common knowledge! The Sign MUST HAVE BEEN THERE in place to warn the shop assistant about this danger!

2. The parent-child supervision GROSS Failure neglecting what he took from her to consume!

The CCTV was broken and wasn't recording the shop assistant gave it to Mum ONLY to prove it.

So they can't put Mum's words above his words.

I'm really sorry but I just don't understand what you're trying to say. The challenge25 policy is not a legal requirement as far as I know. It's a recommendation. By law the shop must have a legal age verification policy that the employees are trained in. It sounds from what you're saying that the employer has complied with that.

I have no idea what you're saying about your mum and and a child. Your relative, presumably son, gave something free to your mum who gave it to a child and is now accusing him of giving it to the child directly? How is that the shop owners fault?

I'm so confused.
He gave a woman a sample drink and didn't know it was alcoholic
She gave it to her child not knowing it was alcoholic

I can 100% understand why she'd be annoyed and I think the shop is at fault. He shouldn't be giving anything out if he doesn't know what it is.

@LetitiaLeghorn
I'm really sorry but I just don't understand what you're trying to say. The challenge25 policy is not a legal requirement as far as I know. It's a recommendation. By law, the shop must have a legal age verification policy that the employees are trained in. It sounds from what you're saying that the employer has complied with that.

I am sure the Under 25 Is a MUST HAVE by law. That's what I \m trying to find out if I am right.

It wasn't my Mum. It is a customer who is a Mum with a 12-year-old child. Exactly! I completely agree that it IS the customer's (who is this Mum) and it is HER FAULT for not checking what her child took from her OUTSIDE THE SHOP to drink and she is responsible and not a shop assistant at all!

In my opinion, the Manager of the shop is GUILTY too for not putting the Under 25 Sign for the shop assistant to know about this danger, to be warned and to inform every customer he gave it to.

If the sign was there, this would have never ever happened! The Manager's GROSS NEGLIGENCE led to this happening and he is GUILTY too!

I think you're wrong about the challenge 25 sign. Challenge 25 is not part of the licensing laws. It's a scheme introduced by the Alcohol retail group.

Here. I found this. Its 2018 but its still true today.
www.lawble.co.uk/challenge-25/

Again, I'm finding what you're saying to be unclear. I think you're saying that shop assistant gave an alcoholic drink to a parent who gave it to their child. I would think it's the responsibility of the parent except if the shop assistant gave it to the mother knowing she was going to give it to the child. So if the child asked the mother for the drink in front of the shop assistant and the SA knew she was going to give it to the child, that might make the SA complicit in the act. And I'm sort of thinking that's the situation or you wouldn't be insisting that the SA didn't know it was alcoholic. But I'm not sure that would be a defence.
If he had given it to the mother without knowing she was going to give it to the child, the over 25 sign wouldn't wouldn't mattered because if she had a 12yo child, I guess she'd have looked over 25.
Other than that, I guess it's a he said, she said situation as to who gave it to the child.

@LetitiaLeghorn · 30/04/2022 20:22
Again, I'm finding what you're saying to be unclear. I think you're saying that shop assistant gave an alcoholic drink to a parent who gave it to their child. I would think it's the responsibility of the parent except if the shop assistant gave it to the mother knowing she was going to give it to the child. So if the child asked the mother for the drink in front of the shop assistant and the SA knew she was going to give it to the child, that might make the SA complicit in the act. And I'm sort of thinking that's the situation or you wouldn't be insisting that the SA didn't know it was alcoholic. But I'm not sure that would be a defence.
If he had given it to the mother without knowing she was going to give it to the child, the over 25 sign wouldn't wouldn't mattered because if she had a 12yo child, I guess she'd have looked over 25.
Other than that, I guess it's a he said, she said situation as to who gave it to the child.

The SA 100% gave it to the ADULT, child's Mum and the child took the drink of her and had it.

The fact is the SA WAS NOT INFORMED for 5 minutes by the manager and the Under 25 Sign It was an alcoholic drink. It was extremely busy, he was manding 6 self-service till at the same time before he managed to read in 5 minutes it wasn't just a soft drink as he thought.

That is why the Under 25 Sign which WAS NEVER THERE and MUST HAVE BEEN THERE for this NEVER EVER to happen matters here 100% and the child's Mum and the Store Manager or a Floor Manager are 100% BOTH responsible that this has happened!

*6 self-service tills

OK. You seem to be sure that you know what all the laws are so I can't see how anyone on here can really add anything.

The child's Mum wrote the letter to the store about it and said that SHE was given an alcoholic drink without knowing it was alcoholic BECAUSE THERE WAS NO SIGN and the SA didn't tell (because at that time he didn't know himself) and her child took it of her and had it.

She blamed NO SIGN and NOT BEING INFORMED about it by a SA when clearly SA WAS NOT INFORMED and WARNED about it by his manager.