Coventry food business fined after Salmonella outbreak
Serious food hygiene offences led to fines for the restaurant and its director
Last updated 15th Dec 2025
A Coventry food business and its director have been fined thousands of pounds for food hygiene offences after a Salmonella outbreak in 2024 caused people to fall ill.
Palm by H2O Limited, 10 Spon Street, and its sole director, Mr Mohammed Naveed, pleaded guilty to multiple food hygiene offences at Coventry Magistrates Court on 15th September 2025.
They were sentenced at Birmingham Magistrates Court on 9th December 2025.
Palm by H2O Ltd were fined a total of £10,000 and ordered to pay £10,186.55 in costs, alongside a £2,000 victim surcharge.
Mr Naveed received a separate fine of £6,500, costs of £10,186.55, and a £2,000 victim surcharge.
In June 2024, the Council’s Food and Safety Team were notified that 29 individuals had developed gastrointestinal symptoms after eating at Palm by H2O.
Symptoms included blood in stools, fever, sickness, and fainting, with some individuals needing hospital treatment for several days.
An investigation was launched by the Council team in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency.
Samples collected during the investigation confirmed that 17 out of 18 individuals were infected with the same Salmonella strain, which had not been previously identified in the UK.
Aside from eating at the restaurant, no other factors common to all individuals could explain their infection.
Inspections of the restaurant by officers revealed hygiene lapses in the kitchen, including no evidence of proper hand washing, a failure to appreciate the risks associated with storing and handling raw meat, inadequate staff training and failure to protect food against contamination.
As a result, Mr Naveed agreed to voluntarily close the restaurant until health and safety conditions were improved to the satisfaction of the investigating officers.
The restaurant initially had a food hygiene rating of 5 (very good) but was rescored to 1 (major improvement necessary) following the investigation.
Subsequently, Palm by H2O paid and applied for a rescoring revisit and as the improved conditions had been maintained, a rating of 5 was awarded on 19 August 2024.
Inspectors confirmed maintained conditions following a further inspection in January 2025.
The offences to which Palm by H2O Ltd and Mr Naveed pleaded guilty were:
- Placing food on the market that was unsafe due to the presence of Salmonella organisms.
- Failure to protect food against any contamination likely to render the food unfit for human consumption, injurious to health or contaminated in such a way that it would be unreasonable to expect it to be consumed in that state.
- Failure to ensure that food handlers were supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activity.
Davina Blackburn, Strategic Lead for Regulation and Communities in Coventry said:
“We take a staged approach to enforcement and prosecution is a matter of last resort," Blackburn said.
“Wherever possible officers will always try to work with businesses offering advice and guidance but will take the necessary actions if they feel there is a risk to health.
"It is vital that people running food businesses in Coventry are running clean and safe establishments all of the time to ensure the safety of the food they sell to customers.”
Many individuals who contracted the Salmonella strain during the outbreak continue to suffer with long-lasting effects, with some still suffering now with physical and mental repercussions of their diagnoses.