The bakery chain Perera and Sons Bakers Pvt Ltd (P&S) has issued a public apology to customers after expired bakery items were found on sale at its outlet on St. Benedict’s Mawatha, Colombo, Hiru News reported.

The apology follows a conviction. The Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court fined the company Rs. 200,000 after it pleaded guilty to charges brought by the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA).

The prosecution arose from a CAA raid on 20 April 2026, during which officials found buns that had expired on 16 April — four days earlier — displayed for sale.

The company’s response

In a special statement, P&S acknowledged the oversight and said an internal review is under way to establish how the error occurred. The company said strict instructions have been issued across its entire island-wide branch network to reinforce expiry-date checking procedures.

The chain said it deliberately maintains a short shelf life on its products to ensure freshness, a practice that requires rigorous monitoring to work. It conceded that monitoring failed in this instance, and invited customers to direct complaints or suggestions to its customer support line.

The same penalty, a second time this week

The Rs. 200,000 figure matches another expired-goods prosecution concluded days earlier. On 10 September, three consumer and food-safety prosecutions ended in fines on the same day, one of them a Rs. 200,000 penalty imposed by a Colombo Additional Magistrate on a company that sold a consumer an expired 400g tea packet.

That case was brought under Direction No. 52 of Extraordinary Gazette No. 1875/38 of 15 August 2014, which bars traders from storing expired or unfit goods among stock offered for sale. Hiru does not state the provision used against P&S, so the two cannot be confirmed as the same charge — but the identical penalty suggests Rs. 200,000 is the going rate for a guilty plea on expired stock.

Not reported

Hiru does not give the date the case was called or decided, name the magistrate, or state the statutory maximum the Rs. 200,000 sits against. It does not say how much expired stock was recovered, whether other P&S outlets were inspected, or whether any employee faced disciplinary action.

No other verified newsroom’s report on the case was retrievable at the time of writing.