Ghanaian Chef Caught Storing Fish in Bathtub Escapes Jail But Gets Ban.
A shocking food safety scandal has landed a Ghanaian chef in court after authorities discovered he had been storing fish in a bathtub beside his toilet before using them to prepare meals sold in shops.
The man, Stephen Akuoko, narrowly avoided prison but has now been banned from running any food business in the United Kingdom.
Akuoko, 62, had been operating a small food business called Tribal Foods in Watford for more than three years. He produced ready-made meals which he supplied to supermarkets and corner shops in the area.
Authorities said the meals were sold with excessively long use-by dates and often without proper ingredient labels. Investigators later described the products as “unfit for human consumption.”
The disturbing discovery came in October 2024 when firefighters responded to a blaze at Akuoko’s home on Haines Way. While dealing with the fire, they stumbled upon large quantities of fish stored in the bathtub and scattered across the bathroom floor next to the toilet.
When questioned by Trading Standards officers, Akuoko initially claimed he would stop selling products from Tribal Foods.
However, just a week after the fire, officials discovered unlabelled meals from the business in a nearby shop. CCTV footage later showed Akuoko making three separate deliveries to the store.
The case eventually went to St. Albans Crown Court, where he pleaded guilty to two food safety offences.
Judge Francis Sheridan strongly criticised the conditions under which the food was stored and prepared. He handed Akuoko a two-year suspended prison sentence and banned him from operating any food business for five years.
Prosecutor Michael Coley told the court that the investigation began after environmental health officers found ready meals from Tribal Foods in local stores with suspiciously long shelf lives and little information about their ingredients.
Coley also said Akuoko was initially difficult to track down and reacted angrily when officials tried to contact him.
During the court hearing, the judge condemned the conditions in which the food was handled, saying the meals prepared from fish stored on a bathroom floor and in a bathtub were clearly unsafe.
He warned that food poisoning can have serious consequences and could even lead to death, adding that the outcome could have been far worse had anyone fallen seriously ill.
Officials from Watford Borough Council said the case highlights the importance of strict food safety standards and vowed to continue taking action against businesses that put public health at risk.
