Key figures at a Southall-based food importer have been fined after hundreds of litres of banned ghee, a dairy product, were found at its premises.
On 20 January 2026, Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court heard that Swadi Products UK Limited, trading as Swadi Products, in Endsleigh Road, was selling ghee, a type of butter. Ghee produced in India is banned in the UK.
Swadi Products UK Limited, director Amrik Panesar, of Watford Road in Harrow, and secretary Preeti Panesar, of St Johns Road in Slough, pleaded guilty of bringing animal products into England without using a designated border control post, failing to provide information requested by enforcement officers, and failing to identify suppliers and customers for the ghee.
The court ordered the Panesars, and the company, to each pay fines and costs totalling more than £20,000. Mr and Mrs Panesar now have a criminal record.
Swadi Products UK Limited was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £1,694 in legal costs and a £1,600 victim surcharge – a total of £7,294. Mr Panesar was fined £4, 000 and ordered to pay £1, 694 court costs and a £1,600 victim surcharge, totalling £7,294. Mrs Panesar was fined £2,666 and ordered to pay £1,694 court costs and a £1,066 victim surcharge, totalling £5,426.
Investigation findings
The court heard that, after a referral from the Food Standards Agency, Ealing Council officers visited Swadi Products in March 2025. During the inspection, they discovered 444 tins of Amul-branded ghee labelled ‘for sale in India’.
All dairy products made in India are banned from entering the UK and EU as India does not have a milk residual plan to export milk products to the United Kingdom.
The company initially claimed the ghee was bought from another business. Officers later received a handwritten invoice with the supplier’s name ‘Soni and Sons Leicester’. Checks with Leicester City Council and Companies House found no record of this business ever existing. Swadi Products failed to identify who had supplied the product to them, which is an offence.
Swadi Products denied having sold any ghee to any businesses. On 26 March 2025, officers found 11 tins of Amul ghee on sale at Western Cash and Carry, in Southall, with an invoice from 9 February showing Swadi Products as the supplier. Swadi Foods failed to give authorised officers the invoice when requested. Failure to give the information to authorised officers is an offence.
Council officers removed the banned ghee from Swadi Products and was later destroyed.
Protecting residents’ health
Councillor Kamaljit Nagpal, the council’s cabinet member for decent living incomes, said: “All food businesses must follow the law to protect public health. These rules exist for good reasons and flagrantly ignoring them is unacceptable. We will always take the strongest possible action against any businesses in the borough that break these rules.”
