If you find a piece of foreign material in a food product, this
can be an unpleasant experience. Foreign objects in food have
the potential to cause harm either through physical damage, such as
a cut or chipped tooth from plastic or metal fragments, or via
food-borne illness arising from foreign chemicals or bacteria. This
section should help you to identify potentially harmful food
complaints, describe what steps to take to ensure they are dealt
with properly and will also point out some common food complaints
of little health significance.
Identifying a Problem
Problems with food are found in three main ways:
- From seeing something out of the
ordinary,
- From smelling something out of the ordinary
and
- From feeling something out of the
ordinary.
Looking at food is the most common way of finding something
wrong with it. This method primarily discovers ‘physical’
contaminants in food, such as pieces of plastic, glass or metal.
Items such as these have the potential to cause harm and should be
dealt with to address a problem that may be reoccurring.
By smelling food it is often possible to identify a problem. An
‘odd’ smell may be caused by a chemical in the product. It is
uncommon, but not impossible, for food to be contaminated with
substances such as cleaning chemicals from factories and this
problem should be dealt with.
If you smell a food that gives rise to an odour that suggests that
it is ‘going off’, this may be caused by bacterial contamination or
a broken package seal. Always check the best before/use by date on
the package of ‘off’ smelling foods, in particular the information
describing storage times once opened. If you notice that the
package is damaged in anyway, a broken seal can often be the source
of a problem with foods ‘going off’.
Feeling a foreign material in your mouth is by far the most
unpleasant way of detecting a food complaint. This type of
complaint should always be dealt with, particularly if the foreign
material caused, or had the potential to cause, you harm.
Who should I tell if I find........?
- A worm in my sandwich.
- Glass in packet of cereal.
- A fly in my cake.
or
The food which I bought is wrongly described
eg:
- Beef sold as lamb.
- Food which is sold when it has passed its use by
date.
Report the matter as soon as possible
to:-
The manager of the shop where it was purchased.
or
Your local Environmental Services or Trading Standards
Department.
Environmental Health
- If the food is unfit, e.g. rotten meat, food has made you ill
or if you find something which should not be there, e.g. a
fly.
Trading Standards
- Trading Standards deal with food which is wrongly described in
relation to quality or quantity.
What should I do?
While events are fresh in your mind, you should make an account of
the purchase. Include the following:-
- Date of purchase.
- Time of purchase.
- Place of purchase.
- Use by date/best before date.
- Who bought the food.
- Who discovered the problem.
- Who ate the food.
- Keep any packaging.
- Keep the food in an appropriate place, e.g. fridge or freezer,
until it can be collected by or delivered to the appropriate
Authority.
- Speedy action is very important in cases of unfit food, e.g.
mould. The longer you wait the harder it is to prove that it was
bad when you bought it.
What we can do
- We can inspect the food.
- Check the shop from where it was bought.
- Send the food for examination.
- Where possible, the manufacturers premise may be inspected to
check what steps have been taken to prevent the food from becoming
contaminated.
What we cannot do
- Obtain compensation on your behalf.
- Return the food to you after examination as it may be destroyed
during analysis.
Will it cost me anything?
NO. All legal costs are paid for by the Authority.
What else will I have to do?
- You may be asked to make a legal statement.
- You may have to appear in Court as a witness if legal action is
taken.
- If you would like further information please contact the
Commercial Team on 01638 719733 or email the Commercial
team here,
or
Trading Standards Service (Consumer Direct) on 08454 04
05 06 or www.consumerdirect.gov.uk
Some Common Complaints That Do Not Pose A Risk To Health
Although it is unpleasant to find a strange object in your food,
not all foreign objects found in foods pose a significant health
risk. Below is a list of some commonly discovered foreign objects
in food which do not cause harm to people:
Fruit flies and green flies in fruit and
vegetables
Small flies can commonly be found amongst
fruit (fruit flies) or vegetables (green flies). These types of
flies do not carry disease and do not pose any health risk. You may
want to contact the manufacturer, but unfortunately there is little
your Local Authority can do about them due to their high frequency
and insignificant risk.
Grubs in tinned vegetables
Sometimes small
grubs are found in tins of vegetables, in particular in tomatoes or
sweetcorn. These grubs are moth larvae. They are killed and
sterilised by the canning process and do not therefore pose any
risk to health. You may want to contact the manufacturer.
Small stones and soil in fruit and
vegetables
Small stones and fragments of soil are
often found attached to fruit and vegetables. These types of foods
naturally occur in the soil so this is relatively common. If you
find stones or soil in fruit or vegetables, it is best just to wash
the product thoroughly.
Struvite crystals in canned fish
Crystals are sometimes found in canned fish which resemble glass.
They are known as struvite and are naturally occurring. They do not
pose a health risk if swallowed. You can check to see whether they
are glass by placing them in vinegar and heating them gently. If
they dissolve they are struvite, if they do not then they are
probably glass and you should therefore contact your Local
Authority.
Sugar Crystals in sweet and chocolates
Sugar
crystals are commonly found in sweets and chocolates and can look
just like glass. Sugar crystals will dissolve in hot water. If they
do not dissolve then they may be glass and you should therefore
contact your Local Authority. Sugar crystals are not harmful if
consumed.
Codworm in white fish
Small, yellow-brown
coloured worms can sometimes be found in the flesh of white fish
such as cod and haddock. They are killed by cooking and do not
therefore pose a significant risk to health.
Bakery char in bakery products
Bakery goods
such as bread and cakes sometimes contain small bits of overcooked
dough which could resemble rodent droppings. These get into bakery
goods by falling off previously used baking tins. They do not pose
any risk to health.
Carbonised grease in bakery products
Some
bakery products may have areas which appear dark and greasy. This
is carbonised grease which comes from machinery used in the
production of bakery goods. The grease is a non-toxic vegetable oil
and does not pose any risk to health.
Chocolate 'mould'
Chocolate products can sometimes develop light coloured zones which
resemble mould. They are not mould and occur if the chocolate is
stored at high temperatures. In fact, mould grows on chocolate
incredibly rarely. These patches of ‘Bloom’ as they are known, do
not cause any harm to humans if consumed. You may want to contact
the retailer or manufacturer if you find chocolate
bloom.