Food Complaints

If you have concerns regarding any food you have purchased, please read the following information and do not hesitate to contact us.

One of the jobs of the Regulatory Services Division is to investigate complaints about food that people are dissatisfied or concerned about . When you have a complaint we gather as much information as possible for our investigation:

• Who you are and your full details
• What you think is wrong with the food
• Who discovered the complaint and when
• Has the person eating the food suffered any ill effects?
• As much detail about the food as possible, including codes from any packaging
• Where and when the food was purchased
• How the food was transported and stored at home
• How the food has been stored since the complaint was discovered

You may bring the complaint into our offices or we will visit you to confirm the above details and then explain the following procedures.

We ask if you are willing to attend as a witness in court should the Regulatory Services Division take legal action. If you are, we will ask the person who discovered the complaint and the person who bought the food for witness statements. Quite often the discoverer and purchaser are one and the same.

We explain that although any offence is committed at the point of sale, some complaints, such as a foreign body in an opaque sealed container, cannot be seen by the retailer or have happened in the shop. These complaints will possibly have occurred during the manufacturing process. If this is the case, and the product is not made in Stoke-on-Trent, we explain that we may pass on the complaint to the Food Safety Officers who inspect the factory where the food was made.

We will also ask if you wish your details to be released to the manufacturer or retailer at the end of the investigation. Finally we will ask you to sign a declaration that all details you have given us are true and to confirm your above wishes.

We will then try to find out what is wrong with the food and how it happened. Sometimes this can take minutes, sometimes months. It may involve inspection of premises, liaison with manufacturers, contact with other Food Safety Officers and analysis of the food by the County Analyst.

Under Section 21 of The Food Safety Act 1990, businesses have a defence in law called "Due Diligence". This applies if they were unable to prevent the complaint occurring, or were taking all reasonable steps to prevent it happening. In order to find this out, we need to find out what procedures the manufacturer or retailer has, what their record with respect to food hygiene is, how often complaints occur and what the opinion of the Officers who inspect the premises is. This will generally involve lengthy phone calls, correspondence and examination of documentation.

We will continue to keep you informed throughout this process and at the end of our investigation, inform you of our decision. As Food Safety has improved over the years, it is now rare that an investigation results in prosecution. However we still may issue formal cautions and informal notices regarding improvements to premises and processes.

Sometimes we receive complaints which, although distressing to the complainant, we can easily identify and are next to impossible to prevent. These complaints will not result in legal action. Please read the following information explaining some of these - Worms in Fish, Glass in Salmon and Common Food Complaints.

Please note, the Regulatory Services Division is only concerned about whether a food safety offence has been committed and that action is taken to prevent it occurring again. Any issue regarding compensation is a civil matter between the complainant and the manufacturer/retailer.

Should you have concerns about any food you have bought, please do not hesitate to contact us.