A vile discovery inside the home of a man who was cooking ready meals to be sold in nearby shops has reignited suspicion around the quick lunches from unfamiliar brands on offer in corner shops.
Watford Borough Council secured a conviction against Stephen Akuoko, 62, earlier this month, following a two-year investigation which began after cooked and smoked fish products being sold under the name Tribal Foods were traced back to him.
Stomach-turning pictures taken inside Akuoko’s home show dead fish piled up in the tub of his cluttered bathroom and the squalid conditions of the kitchen where he prepared the ready meals.
An investigation was launched by Trading Standards, and Akuoko told environmental health officials he would stop selling Tribal Foods products.
However just weeks later, his unlabelled products were found in a local shop with CCTV footage showing he had made three deliveries to the store.
Akuoko later pleaded guilty to two food safety offences, as the judge blasted him for the meals that were ‘unfit for human consumption’ and handed him a two-year suspended prison sentence and a five-year ban from operating any food business.
It’s a story that will make anyone think twice before grabbing one of the ready meals or sandwiches sold in corner shops across the country – even if you are in a rush.
What’s more, online reviews of some of the ready meals and sandwiches sold in corner shops across the country have branded them ‘not fit for human consumption’.
Disgruntled diners claimed they have found flies, hair, plastic, metal and mould in their ready meals, with some alleging they contracted food poisoning.
The Daily Mail went shopping for lunch options sold in vague packaging from mysterious suppliers in off-licences on London’s high streets to track down who is making them and where.
Firefighters attending a blaze at Stephen Akuoko’s home on Haines Way, Watford, sent a tip off to Watford Borough Council after finding a bathtub full of dead fish in the property
At St Albans Crown Court last Thursday, Akuoko received a two-year suspended prison sentence and a five-year ban from operating any food business
Akuoko’s kitchen was used to prepare the illegal ready meals sold to stores across Watford
HSA Foods Ltd
Inside a Premier on Leytonstone High Street in east London we picked up an unappetising looking cheese and red onion pitta for £3.
It was one of the many options on offer from manufacturer and supplier of preprepared meals HSA Foods Ltd, including tuna and sweetcorn rolls and chicken Caesar sandwiches.
The pungent odour of the gloopy filling provoked some gagging amongst reporters in the office, with no one brave enough to try the densely packed pitta.
At Express Food Centre further down the road, we purchased one of HSA Food’s chicken biryani meals in a plastic takeaway tub.
Its £3.75 price point makes it seem like a bargain, but inside we found just four measly chunks of chicken and the stem of a chilli someone had forgotten to remove.
The cheese and red onion pitta from HSA Foods was filled to the brim with stodgy filling with a pungent smell
The cheese and red onion pitta from HSA Foods was filled to the brim with stodgy filling that had a gag-worthy smell
The HSA Foods chicken biryani which only came with four chunks of meat and was mostly rice
The Premier store on Leytonstone High Street where the HSA Foods pitta was purchased and Express Food Centre on the same road where the HSA Foods chicken biryani was bought
HSA Foods’ factory on Drury Lane Industrial Estate in Wembley, west London
Famously unfussy data journalist Cameron Roy was the only brave soul who volunteered to try the biryani and give us a review.
He said: ‘This is definitely edible, but only in emergencies. There were only four chunks of chicken and no vegetables, meaning the £3.75 price tag was mostly for an entire box of basmati rice. In the future, I would stick with a meal deal.’
HSA Foods seems to have cornered the market for ‘to go’ food as we found their products in almost all of the shops we visited.
Set up in 2010, HSA Foods produces a range of lunch items and distributes them to stores across the UK from their factory on Drury Lane Industrial Estate in Wembley, west London.
During a visit to the factory to obtain a comment from HSA Foods, the Daily Mail found the grounds outside were cluttered, not particularly clean and certainly did not look like the sort of place you would want your food to be prepared.
Liaqat Mehmood is listed as the Director and Hadia Mehmood is down as the factory manager on LinkedIn.
Until 2024, HSA were exempt from inspections for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) Hygiene Rating Scheme because they did not supply directly to the final customers.
However, they began receiving inspections and have since had three five-star ratings in March and May 2024 and another in December 2025.
They have no website and no social media presence.
The Daily Mail made several attempts to contact HSA Foods for comment, but the company did not respond.
Sandwiches and pittas seen on a fridge shelf inside the Premier store in Leytonstone
A one-star review appears to show a dead fly inside a chicken wrap bought from a post office which left the buyer feeling ‘absolutely repulsed’
A picture allegedly showing a small piece of metal found in a biryani which was included in a bad review
A one-star review of a corner shop sandwich appeared to show a hair found in a sandwich that the consumer claims tasted ‘sour’
Three reviews mentioned mould growing on chicken bites
Summit Foods Ltd
The £1.99 neon orange chicken tikka Snacksters sandwich with purple packaging inside Corner Food & Wine in Leytonstone was so eye-catching, we had to buy it.
Trying to pry the two slices of bread apart in the office kitchen proved difficult with the nuclear-looking paste acting as a stinky glue – driving colleagues making coffee back to their desks in disgust.
Snacksters is a brand under manufacturer and distributor Summit Foods Ltd, which also make many of the McDonald’s ‘dupes’ found in Iceland and Morrisons, including knock-off McNuggets and copycat Big Macs.
They are based on an industrial estate in St Georges Park in Kirkham, Preston, where they also process and ship meat from their other company Kepak Ltd.
There are no FSA Food Hygiene ratings available for Summit Foods, likely because it does not supply directly to the final consumer and is therefore exempt from inspections.
Snacksters chicken tikka sandwich was hard to pull apart as the filling acted like a foul-smelling glue keeping the slices of dry bread together
Corner Food & Wine in Leytonstone where the Snacksters chicken tikka sandwich was purchased
Someone who picked up a chicken, bacon and mayonnaise Snacksters sandwich said it was ’70 per cent bread and the filling resembled dog food’ and had a ‘really weird taste’
Summit Foods has an overall Google rating of 1.5 stars, with some claiming their sandwich tasted ‘stale’ or ‘sour’.
Another said they had to throw away their egg mayo sandwich bought from their local shop because it tasted ‘very sour and bitter’ despite being in date according to the pack.
Someone who picked up a chicken, bacon and mayonnaise sandwich claimed it was ’70 per cent bread and the filling resembled dog food’ and had a ‘really weird taste’.
Many of the one-star reviews bemoaned the lack of filling inside Snacksters sandwiches, with mushy contents strategically placed to make them appear full in the packaging.
One wrote: ‘Worst sandwich ever, absolutely no filling and nothing resembling chicken or bacon, more like what was dropped on the floor. Disgusting, will never buy any of their products.’
Despite the poor feedback, there are some good reviews with one saying they make ‘the best tuna butty you will ever find in a shop’ and another praising the egg mayo sandwich as ‘good as anything I’ve ever eaten in a high-end restaurant’.
A spokesperson for Summit Foods told the Daily Mail: ‘Our Snacksters range plays an important role for shoppers looking for a great value, convenient sandwich on the go.
‘We work hard to ensure that every sandwich is of the best possible quality and are sorry to hear this may not have been the case in a few isolated cases. We’re always listening to feedback and continuing to improve the quality of our range whilst working to keep prices affordable.
‘Our site holds the highest level of BRCGS (Brand Reputation Compliance Global Standard) certification for Food Safety, providing independent assurance that robust systems and controls are in place to ensure product safety and quality.’
House of Westphalia Ltd
Another item we found in Corner Food & Wine was a microwaveable chicken burger in a plastic tub with not much information on the front packaging other than the words ‘Son of a Bun’ accompanied by a cowboy burger mascot.
In tiny writing under the month-long use-by date on the back of the £1 burger, we found the address for the company that imports them – House of Westphalia Ltd.
Based in an industrial park in the Bushmead area of Luton in Bedfordshire, House of Westphalia supplies Son of a Bun chicken burger and cheeseburgers as well as pre-packaged chicken bites from their ‘Snack Stars’ range, often found inside corner shop fridges.
Upon opening the packaging, we found an insipid puck of processed chicken with an unpleasant smell between buns that were soggy in some areas and dry in others.
With no FSA hygiene rating to be found, we can assume they are exempt from inspections likely because their products are imported from factories abroad.
House of Westphalia did not respond to request for comment.
A microwaveable ‘Son of a Bun’ chicken burger imported and sold by House of Westphalia for £1
FreshBite
In a fridge at City View Off Licence on Bethnal Green Road in east London we found a rival to HSA Foods’ chicken biryani by a brand called FreshBite for the slightly lower price of £3.49.
Despite costing 26p less, it looked and smelled miles more appealing with plenty of chicken and more seasoning.
Cameron also swiped this biryani away to take home and eat for a review which saw it win over HSA Foods’.
He said: ‘If you like your biryani spicy, this would be a pretty good option. It left a very warm tingling in my mouth afterwards, meaning a drink or something cooling was directed. The chicken was shredded, instead of the more typical chunks, which I preferred, as it meant you got a little bit in almost every bite. In the middle of the tub, the rice had clumped into what appeared to be a massive, brain-like rice ball. I didn’t eat that bit. Didn’t taste overly processed and was overall at the standard I would expect from a supermarket microwave meal.’
The address for where it was produced printed on the packaging linked to a Companies House page for FreshBite which said the company had been dissolved.
But another active Companies House page for the firm, incorporated in 2013, places FreshBite at Fourways House on Rigby Lane in Hayes, west London.
FreshBite’s website shows other offerings they produce as a ‘major supplier’, such as curries, ‘deep fill’ sandwiches, noodle dishes, salads, pittas and paninis.
Cameron also swiped this biryani away to take home and eat for a review which saw it win over HSA Foods’ chicken biryani
But buried inside the FreshBite chicken biryani was a huge lump of coagulated rice which Cameron decided to avoid
In a fridge at City View Off Licence on Bethnal Green Road in east London we found a rival to HSA Foods’ chicken biryani by a brand called FreshBite
As well as supplying their food items to more than 1,000 ‘independent retail stores’, they are also stocked in universities, colleges and even hospitals.
They do not have an FSA hygiene rating, so an overall Google rating of 2.9 offers views on the company’s products.
‘Tasteless, horrible, nasty sandwiches,’ one reviewer claimed. ‘The cheap nasty cardboard packaging was probably nicer than the actual product. One of the very worst I have ever eaten. Definitely do not deserve 1 star. Zero Stars for me. Bought in Nisa. Nisa need to check out their suppliers. As I said, one of the worst ever eaten.’
FreshBite did not respond to request for comment.
Quality Foods
In Express Food Centre in Leytonstone, we bought a vegetable samosa for £1.29.
The popular snack came in a plastic bag with the company name Quality Foods in the top left-hand corner and looked relatively inoffensive on first glance.
Freeing it from its polymer prison and cutting it in half revealed some putrid-smelling filling with a slightly off-colour.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of food-related businesses operating under the name Quality Foods, so tracking down the samosa supplying one was trickier than the rest of the items.
We couldn’t track down a Companies House page for the business that we could confidently link to the limited information on the packaging.
However, a company called Faley Partners Ltd, which provides ‘retail sale via mail order houses or via internet’ has a matching address at Witley Gardens in Southall in west London.
Faley Partners is due for voluntary strike off as of February. It is unclear whether or not the two companies are related.
As of March 2025, Quality Foods has an FSA rating of 4, but online archives claim it received a rating of 1 in December 2012 – meaning it needed ‘major improvement’ – and a rating of 3 in 2017 – marking their hygiene standards as generally satisfactory.
There are only eight reviews which make up their overall Google score of 4.5, with one positive one describing the place as a ‘hidden gem’ with ‘fantastic’ samosas and spring rolls.
In Express Food Centre in Leytonstone, we bought a vegetable samosa for £1.29
In a one-star review, a customer posted a picture of their Quality Foods lamb samosa and wrote: ‘There is more chemical than food!’
The review praised the service and mentioned the ‘super friendly aunty’ who ‘answers the phone’, suggesting that anyone can call up and order.
This direct supply to customers is likely what makes them eligible for FSA hygiene inspections and ratings, unlike many of the others who are exempt because they do not sell directly to the people eating them.
In a one-star review, a customer posted a picture of their Quality Foods lamb samosa and wrote: ‘There is more chemical than food! What’s wrong with you people! Is this how samosa look like?! I’m sick!’
The general manager of Quality Foods, Param, told the Daily Mail: ‘We’ve been here for a long time and the recipe we use is the same one we’ve used for the last 15 years.
‘We always use accredited suppliers, and we manufacture around 30,000 samosas a day – which is only possible due to the longstanding customer satisfaction with our products.’
Verdict
Whilst it’s unlikely the manufacturers of these corner shop ready meals are storing any of their meat in bathtubs, the conditions they are made in remain elusive and largely unregulated.
Pre-packaged food suppliers, or Food Business Operators (FBO), in the UK are regulated primarily by the Food Information Regulations 2014 and the Food Safety Act 1990, enforced by local authorities and the FSA.
FBOs like the ones we looked into have mandatory requirements to meet, including accurate, indelible labelling with the product name, ingredient list, 14 major allergens, net quantity, durability dates and UK manufacturer or importer address.
But local authorities and the FSA only tend to investigate FBOs, which are generally not legally required to be inspected for a hygiene inspection if they do not sell directly to consumers, if someone reports a concern.
This means any concerns over cleanliness or practice inside the factories may never come to light, leaving consumers in the dark about what they are eating and how or why hairs might be in their corner shop biryani or sandwich.
