Food complaints
Greater public awareness of food safety and our service has resulted in an increase in the number of food complaints received by this directorate over recent years. Due to the large number of individual complaints received and the demands on our officers' time to enforce other food safety laws, the guidance at the bottom of the page has been produced to provide information on the best way to deal with a wide range of common food complaints.
Officers are available throughout office hours to give you advice. However, we suggest that the complaints that fall into the following categories are best dealt with by this directorate, as outlined in option 1 below. For all other complaints we recommend that you follow options 2 or 3 below.
- Food is unfit i.e. has deteriorated or becomes contaminated accidentally to an extent that the food would be harmful when consumed.
- The food contains an inorganic foreign body that could pose a threat to the health of an individual consumer or be indicative of a wider threat to general health (e.g. glass in a mass produced food).
- The food contains any insects or organic matter which would be indicative of a particular problem at the place of retail sale, and/or manufacturer.
The following courses of action are available to you for dealing with food complaints:
| Option 1 | Ask the Environment Directorate to investigate. An officer will assess the complaint in accordance with the criteria and as a minimum, make contact with the originating premises and where appropriate the local authority in whose area the complaint originates from. This could involve contacting the manufacturer, retailer or supplier by telephone or letter. If the product has been produced locally then it may involve contacting the local producer and could involve a visit to the premises. |
|---|---|
| Option 2 | For non pre-packed fresh foods return the food, container etc to the shop from which it was purchased and ask to see the person in charge. For pre-packed foods write to or telephone the manufacturer. The address will be on the package. Explain the nature of your complaint and ask them to investigate it. Ask them to write to you with their explanations of how the problem arose. |
| Option 3 | You may wish to take private legal action against the retailer/manufacturer. You should discuss this matter with a solicitor. |
If after pursuing the matter with the relevant shop/company you are still not satisfied with their response you should return to this directorate with details of your progress. At this stage we may not be able to take any action other than to write to the company concerned noting their failure to satisfy you. We would hope that this would stimulate them into responding to your complaint and also enable us to record their failure and take this into account in any further dealings we might have with them.
Salford City Council is unable to negotiate compensation for complaints on your behalf. Investigations undertaken by this authority only cover the criminal aspect of the each case and not civil liabilities.
Remember the following when dealing with food complaints:
- Avoid handling foreign objects - if they are embedded in the food do not displace them
- Keep the food in its original container where possible
- Keep any wrappings and labels etc
- If the food is perishable keep it in the refrigerator or freezer
- Keep any till receipts
Downloadable documents
If you are unable to view documents of these types, our downloads page provides links to viewing software.
This page was last updated on 26 August 2008
Bookmark this page using:
Find out more about social bookmarking.
These sites allow you to store, tag and share links across the internet. You can share these links both with friends and people with similar interests. You can also access your links from any computer you happen to be using.
If you come across a page on our site that you find interesting and want to save for future reference or share it with other people, simply click on one of these links to add to your list.
All of these sites are free to use but do require you to register. Once you have registered you can begin bookmarking. Each of the sites works slightly differently so use the links below to find out which service best suits your needs.
Find out more about social bookmarking at Wikipedia.
