THE co-directors of an Abergavenny hotel appeared in court yesterday and admitted supplying food linked to an outbreak of salmonella.

Richard Wallace and John West, co-directors of the Llanwenarth Arms Hotel and Restaurant Ltd, Brecon Road, Abergavenny, pleaded guilty on behalf of the hotel to 17 counts of breaching food safety guidelines by selling a quantity of food, kiwi parfait, which was deemed unsafe and considered injurious to health due to contamination of salmonella bacteria.

The pair also pleaded guilty on behalf of the hotel to seven counts of supplying a quantity of food deemed unsafe and unfit for human consumption due to the contamination of salmonella bacteria.

The charges relate to a period of time between April 5 and 13, 2008.

Abergavenny magistrates’ court heard an investigation was started after Monmouthshire County Council received complaints from members of the public who became ill after eating at the hotel’s restaurant.

One woman reported having symptoms including a high temperature, muscle ache, nausea, diarrhoea and extreme stomach cramps 48 hours after eating there.

Members of Monmouthshire county council's environmental health department visited the Llanwenarth Arms and advised the owners not to serve any products containing raw eggs and to remove a kiwi parfait dessert, which one woman had reported eating, from the menu.

Seventeen people, including one diabetic, tested positive for salmonella, with symptoms lasting for three to four days resulting in some people losing up to a stone in weight.

Lab tests carried out by the National Public Health Service for Wales (NPHS) revealed the kiwi parfait dessert tested positive for salmonella bacteria containing 38,000 coli units per gram.

Prosecutor Ioan Gealy said: “Even two to three coli grams is extremely high and very dangerous and it was inevitable that anyone who had eaten that dessert was going to get ill.

ÒIllness can last four to seven days and can lead to hospitalisation and can prove fatal, though not in this case. Thankfully they have all recovered now.”

The case was adjourned for sentencing at Abergavenny magistrates' court on March 24.