Raw and cooked meat produced in same room.

Not a rigorous food safety plan.

But exactly what Peter and Patrick Conroy are charged of doing as their smallgoods firm, Conroy’s (think deli meat) faces a maximum $200,000 fine over allegations they breached the South Australia food safety code eight times in three months.

Lawyers for the company and its directors, Peter Andrew Conroy and Patrick Kelly Conroy, appeared on their behalf in the Adelaide Magistrates Court today.

The company has yet to enter pleas to eight counts of breaching a condition of its accreditation under the Primary Produce (Food Safety Schemes) Act (2004).

In December 2005, Conroys goods were taken off store shelves due to a listeria outbreak.

Royal Adelaide Hospital patient Richard Formosa died as a result of eating infected Conroy’s products – seven years later, his family received $200,000 compensation.

Listeria was detected at Conroy’s again in August 2006.

Prosecutors later would tell a court the company had ignored the “fundamental rules” of the meat industry by packing raw and cooked meat in the same room.

Conroy’s was fined $8000 for that offence, which the company’s lawyer dubbed “a once-off.”

In June this year, the company was fined $8000 after pleading guilty to four breaches of hygiene standards.