Kosher food firm Osem has been told to pay around £27,000 after failing to recycle waste for nearly 10 years.

Osem UK Ltd - whose products include instant soups, dips, cakes and frozen meats - pleaded guilty at Basildon Magistrates' Court on Monday to failing to register with the Environment Agency as a producer of packaging waste and failing to meet its requirements to recover and recycle packaging waste between 1998 and 2007.

The company, based in Essex, was fined £16,000 and ordered to pay £2,819 in costs and £8,372 in compensation to the Environment Agency.