'One of the worst-run' food premises in Waltham Forest shut

Waltham Forest Council officers, who visited on March 17 and took the business to court six days later, reported it was “one of the worst run food premises they had ever encountered”.

Flour Power Ltd, which traded from a warehouse unit in Argall Avenue, Leyton, had been selling bread to retailers out of a van for six months when officers visited after a tip-off.

Owner Suleyman Cicek, who resigned from a Stoke Newington bread supplier less than three months before setting up the company, refused to admit where he had sold his bread.

Surfaces swarming with fruit flies in Flour Power, Leyton (WF Council)

Officers were horrified to find dead mice, mouse droppings, moths in the flour and no running water inside the premises apart from one basin in the toilet.

On March 23, Thames Magistrates Court awarded the council full costs of more than £1,000 and granted a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Order.

Flour Power Ltd, which traded under the name of Cicek’s old company Harvest Bakehouse, was one of three Waltham Forest businesses to appear before the court that week.

The others were Indian restaurant Insu Inn in Chingford Town Centre and Walthamstow Chinese takeaway Oriental Kitchen.

Conditions inside Oriental Kitchen, Walthamstow (WF Council)

At Oriental Kitchen, on Forest Road, officers found “a lack of routine cleaning resulting in a serious accumulation of filth”, a “serious risk of cross-contamination” and a mouse infestation.

The business was ordered to pay full costs of almost £1,100 to the council on March 24.

Insu Inn, on Cherrydown Avenue, was ordered to pay costs of £980 to the council a day later, after officers discovered another mouse infestation and “unsanitary conditions”.

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