Food : Making a Complaint

About an Item Of Food

If you have bought an item of food that you believe is contaminated in some way, the Food Safety Team will investigate your complaint.

Some examples of things that we investigate include:

• Foods containing foreign bodies (eg stones, glass, insects, hair, plasters, cigarette ends etc)
• Food that is out of condition (eg mouldy, rotten, off-smelling etc)
• Food that is out of date

Discovering a foreign object in food is a very unpleasant experience.  However, not all pose a serious health risk, and we will not:

• Automatically submit the complaint to the Analyst or Manufacturer. Where food complaints are to be sent for analysis (either by a public analyst or the manufacturer) they will be sent in a manner appropriate to ensure continuity of evidence
• Enter into negotiations regarding any compensation claims made by the complainant
• Investigate anonymous complaints UNLESS there is a clear and imminent threat to public health, or where an officer is already aware of the issue raised.

Where foods commonly contain contaminants (eg slugs in vegetables) or where the contamination is not serious (eg mould on fruit) then we are unlikely to undertake an investigation. Link to this PDF document for more information on commonly found complaints

Step 1

Bring the affected food to the council offices at Bradley Road. Ask to speak to a member of the Food Safety Team. If possible bring the food in its original container and bring the receipt for the food if you have one. If the item of food is one of a number of units (eg one carton of yogurt from a pack of four) it is useful to have these as well. If you are not able to bring the food to the offices then we can arrange to collect it from you.

Step 2

You will be asked to complete a form that asks you for your name, address and telephone numbers. We also record where you bought the food and whether you would be prepared to make a written statement about the contaminated food. We are unable to act on anonymous complaints however we can guarantee that your name will not be disclosed to anybody unless you give us permission to do so.

Step 3

The item of food will be photographed by us (if it is highly perishable) and kept secure by us during our investigation. We will contact the retailer, manufacturer and the Food Safety Team in the area that the food was made. We will assess whether an offence has been committed under the food safety legislation. The investigation will usually take a month to fully investigate.

Step 4

You will be notified of the outcome of the investigation. If an offence has been committed you may be asked to complete a witness statement or even attend a court hearing. However, this is a very rare occurrence.

About Food Premises

We will investigate complaints about food premises only if the safety of food is affected.

Things that we will investigate include:

• people smoking in food rooms
• pets or animals in food rooms
• sightings of vermin or pests in food premises
• poor levels of cleanliness in food rooms
• poor food handling practices

(Food rooms include kitchens, store rooms, preparation rooms etc.)

We will not investigate complaints about the price of food, food descriptions on menus or poor customer service. These are trading standards issues and information and advice on these matters is available on the government's Trading Standards Central website.

We will not accept anonymous complaints however we will guarantee that your details are kept confidential. You may be asked to make a witness statement if your complaint results in legal action being taken against the premises.

To make a complaint please contact us by telephone - 01225 776655 ext 594 or by email environmentalhealth@westwiltshire.gov.uk

Updated March 2008