A Nicosia man who suffered severe food poisoning from contaminated village bread in 2011 has finally won his 14-year legal fight.
The Court of Appeals has fully upheld the original District Court ruling, confirming the bakery’s liability and ordering it to pay the victim €1,560 in damages plus interest, along with an additional €2,400 in appeal costs.
On 8 June 2011, the customer bought village bread from the bakery. After eating part of it, he fell violently ill and was rushed to a private hospital. He immediately handed the remaining loaf to the Health Services. State laboratory tests found extensive bacterial contamination inside the bread, declaring it unfit for human consumption.
The bakery denied responsibility throughout, claiming either the bread was not theirs or the customer had mishandled it. The Court of Appeals rejected every argument, describing the evidence as an “unbroken chain”: purchase, consumption, immediate illness, hospital visit, and official lab confirmation of contamination.
Judges praised the victim’s testimony as consistent, credible and fully supported by documents, while noting the bakery’s key witness had been hired four years after the incident and lacked personal knowledge.
The court upheld the €1,500 general damages as fair compensation for pain, suffering and medical treatment.
In a separate ruling on legal costs, the Court of Appeals found the lower court had wrongly applied post-2017 fee scales to earlier work. The costs list will now be recalculated under the correct rules.
After more than a decade in the courts, justice has been served.
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