A restaurant has been fined almost £50,000 after customers suffered food poisoning.

Some of the victims were ill for up to two weeks with sickness and diarrhoea. One woman lost 9lb in weight.

Tests carried out at the Cafe Giardino in Churchill Square, Brighton, showed food was contaminated with e-coli and salmonella bacteria.

The Giardino Group, which owns a chain of restaurants, admitted seven offences of breaching food hygiene regulations at Brighton Magistrates Court yesterday.

The London-based company was fined £47,500 and ordered to pay £2,975 costs.

The offences included three charges of exposing for human consumption food which failed to comply with safety requirements.

The other offences were failing to train food handlers in food hygiene, to keep the premises clean, to ensure food waste did not accumulate and to identify stock control procedures.

Len Batten, prosecuting for Brighton and Hove City Council, said several customers had been taken ill with food poisoning after eating at the top-floor restaurant in August.

One of the women victims ordered a chicken, sweetcorn and mayonnaise ciabatta but only ate half because she did not think it tasted very nice.

Two days later, the woman, from Brighton, started to feel ill and that night woke up with piercing stomach pains followed by diarrhoea, which continued for the next two days.

When, days later, she still felt ill, her doctor suspected it was food poisoning and tests were carried out.

She did not feel well enough to return to work for two weeks.

A customer from Crawley, became ill and, when tests were carried out at the public health laboratory, evidence of contamination by salmonella was found.

Environmental health officers carried out checks and unhealthy bacteria was found on food.

The council considered immediately closing the restaurant but the company closed it voluntarily and organised cleaning and staff retraining.

Mr Batten said unacceptable levels of bacteria were found in samples of egg mayonnaise and other sandwich fillings.

Food was kept at temperatures which supported the growth of food- poisoning bacteria.

He said the kitchen was dirty with food debris over the floor which was slippery because it was greasy.

Waste water from two hand basins poured directly on to the floor.

The restaurant reopened after further tests showed there was no harmful bacteria present.

Company director Franko Gasparelli said: "We will ensure this will never happen again. We are very sorry."

Paul Povey, a consultant specialising in food and environmental safety employed by the restaurant said: "The company is totally committed to food safety and this situation should never arise again."