Napier meat-processor Bay Cuisine, a director and a manager face possible six-figure fines after admitting selling contaminated food, discovered in an investigation of a fatal listeria outbreak at Hawke's Bay Fallen Soldiers' Memorial Hospital three years ago.
The Ministry of Primary Industries originally laid 155 charges, which were denied in the court last July, but most were later withdrawn, leading to guilty pleas on five representative charges and five other charges yesterday in the Napier District Court.
Sentencing is due to take place in the court on July 15.
While the listeria outbreak was linked to the deaths of two women and infection of two other patients, the charges did not relate to the infections and were laid under the Food Act, the company admitting five representative charges of selling contaminated food, one of suppressing test results and one of omitting to supply information to the ministry.
Production manager Christopher Mackie pleaded guilty to the charge of suppressing the results and not supplying the required information, and director Garth Wise pleaded guilty to the omissions charge.