The owner of cafes accused of putting customers at risk by re-labelling and selling out-of-date meat, fish and cheese has said he would have fed his children the condemned food.

Inspectors who visited Belgique branches in Epping and Theydon Bois found staff had re-wrapped food and added hand-written labels, but could not provide proof of suppliers’ use or sell-by dates.

Igor Bekaert, of Belgique brasseries, denied any food had been sold beyond its recommended use-by date, but insisted it was valid to sell goods which are beyond the ‘best before’ recommendation.

He added: “The food that was condemned I would have fed to my own children, even to my grandma.

“It is not illegal to sell food past its best before date.

“Belgique serves over 60,000 customers a month from 8 branches.

“The food does not even have the time to go out of date.

“This is about paperwork and the council wanting us to go further than required by law when we are portioning up products.

“We have worked sweat, tears and blood to build up this business over the last 10 years and I can assure you we went through some really hard times, but we saw it through.”

Mr Bekaert said three long-serving staff members of staff at the branches have resigned since the inspection.

Belgique branches in Chingford, Woodford Green and Wanstead have all been rated five out of five by the Food Standards Agency.

Mr Bekaert added: “Councils are supposed to work together with local businesses not bully them.

“All this has achieved is damage a perfectly healthy local family business that employs over 100 people in the region.”