The Crown has called meat processor Bay Cuisine and two senior staff members 'deliberate deceivers' for hiding test results to sell food contaminated with listeria.

The sentencing is underway for production manager Christopher Mackey and director Garth Wise at the Napier District Court.

They have admitted selling cold-meat packages containing listeria and hiding test results showing the contamination.

The Bay Cuisine cold meat products caused a listeria outbreak at the Hawke's Bay Regional Hospital three years ago.

The outbreak was linked to the deaths of two women and infection of two other patients.

The Crown has told Judge Bridget Macintosh that this offending cannot be trivialised as the company knew about the listeria contamination but continued to sell the products purely for monetary gain.