An unregistered food warehouse with a toilet so disgusting a judge compared it to a scene from Trainspotting has been urgently shut down.

Officers from Waltham Forest Council inspected three units on the Cromwell Industrial Estate in Leyton after learning they were being used to store food for sale to restaurants, takeaway and other suppliers.

Officers found the units were filthy and had no hot water. Outside, they also found blood-stained duvets being used to cover up packs of beef and signs of a severe rodent problem.

Packs of beef stored outside under a filthy duvet (WF Council)

All three units in Staffa Road were shut down immediately and the two businesses responsible – Kim Son Ltd and Four Seasons Catering Supplies Ltd – were taken to court.

Clyde Loakes, responsible for food hygiene inspections at the council, said: “When our officers visit a premises, they never know what they are going to find but this was a revolting sight by any measure. 

“The Judge’s damning observation that one of the toilets looked like the Worst Toilet in Scotland from Trainspotting says it all. 

“It’s unacceptable in any circumstances – but in an environment where people handle food you have to wonder what they were thinking, even if it wasn’t being used.”

At Thames Magistrates Court on 18th November, the district judge forbade the businesses from using the units until they were no longer a danger to public health.

Neither the owner of Four Seasons or Kim Son, which describes itself as the UK’s largest Vietnamese seafood supplier, attended the hearing. Both were ordered to pay costs of £890.