The Evening Courier reports that a chick-pea canning plant at Marshall Hall Mills in Elland has been ordered closed after environmental health officers found a shocking catalogue of hazards and filthy conditions, including:

• a plastic plant pot was used to sieve chickpeas and the conveyor, which turned out thousands of cans of pulses each day, had also been used to tin chilli hemp seeds for fish bait;

• rat droppings and piles of waste were found near where ingredients were stored;

• machinery was a year overdue for calibration and test strips to check products were more than three years out of date;

• black mould and cobwebs were found on the ceiling near the production line; and,

• handwash stations had no water and the only supply was in the grubby toilets where trousers were hung to be used in place of a towel.

The firm is thought to have packed under several different labels and supplied to small retailers across the country.