Doughnut Dilemma: Why Krispy Kreme Was Just Fined Nearly $250,000

A Krispy Kreme store in Leicestershire, U.K., was fined nearly $250,000 (£216,000) after a customer discovered a sharp piece of metal in a doughnut.

The offending doughnut was thought to have foil inside, which Krispy Kreme claimed came from packaging. The company later admitted it had received two other complaints of the same nature that were identified to have come from damage to a vari-mixer.

Krispy Kreme pled guilty to three offenses of food hygiene and safety. The doughnut chain was ordered to pay not only a fine, but also costs and a victim surcharge, the Melton Borough Council said in a statement.

Krispy Kreme was fined £72,000 for each of the food hygiene and safety offenses, an additional £4,255.30 for costs to the Melton Bourgh Council, and a £181 victim surcharge.

"The council would expect a large national company to have appropriate measures in place to ensure the food safety and hygiene throughout the whole process of the manufacturing, including checks on all equipment," Tom Pickwell, senior solicitor at Melton Borough Council, told the court.

"Although some systems were in place, they were not sufficient to deal with the full process which led to the incident and Krispy Kreme did not know how long this had been happening for," he added, arguing that the metal could have caused choking or a mouth injury.

The complaint against Krispy Kreme occurred when a customer found metal in their doughnut after visiting a Melton Mowbray location. The incident occurred in April 2021, when an investigation was opened by the council. It was found that Krispy Kreme did not have controls in place to prevent such hazards, including metal detection or records of machine checks on the vari-mixer.

"Public safety is our primary concern and we hope that our action sends a strong and clear message that the council, the courts and the public take food safety very seriously. We expect appropriate food safety and hygiene standards to be in place and will not hesitate in taking action when these fall short and put public safety at risk," said Cllr Joe Orson, leader of the council.

A spokesperson for Krispy Kreme U.K. told the BBC: "We apologize unreservedly for this incident and for any upset caused to the affected customer. We fully accept the outcome and lessons learnt from this process. We have put in place additional controls that will help prevent an issue like this occurring again."