Food Complaints
What we can do about unsatisfactory food
We can investigate:
- food hygiene matters
- complaints about food that is unfit to eat, injurious to health, or contaminated with foreign matter, including food bought in shops restaurants and cafés in Elmbridge.
It is important for us to have a sample of the food a complaint is about - it is very difficult to investigate the problem without a sample.
We can only investigate complaints about food that was eaten or purchased within the borough of Elmbridge. Complaints about another area will be forwarded to the relevant Local Authority as defined under the Food Safety Act 1990.
|Examples of common food complaints.
Minor complaints
No food producer or shop is perfect and if you have a minor complaint such as salt crystals in tinned fish, a maggot in frozen peas or items past their |best-before-date (but not |use-by-date) we recommend you take the food back to the retailer as soon as possible and draw it to their attention.
|Examples of common food complaints.
Other types of complaint
Complaints concerning the adulteration of food, labelling, composition or staleness of food are dealt with by |Surrey County Council's Trading Standards Department.
Why we investigate food complaints
The Environmental Health & Licensing Division investigate complaints:
- to safeguard public health
- to try and prevent the problem recurring
- to ensure retailers, manufacturers and businesses are preparing and serving food as safely and hygienically as is practically possible.
The purpose of our investigation is not to obtain compensation for you. If you want to seek compensation you should retain the food and obtain legal advice.
What to do if you have a food complaint
Contact us as soon as possible during normal office hours (Mon-Fri 8.45 am to 5.00 pm) or complete and submit our |online complaint form so we can take initial details and advise how best to keep the food before it reaches us. You can bring the food to us at the Civic Centre in Esher, or we can collect it from your home or office.
Try to avoid disturbing the food and keep it in the original state and packaging and keep it in the refrigerator (unless we ask you to keep it differently).
If the food has made you ill (|food poisoning) please tell us as soon as possible.
How we investigate food complaints
When we receive a food complaint:
- We advise you the name and telephone number of the officer who will carry out the investigation.
- We ask you to sign a food complaint agreement form. This confirms that you want us to investigate the problem, that we may keep the food and the receipt, and whether you are willing to act as witness for the Council if we decide that legal action is needed. We do not divulge details of who lodged the complaint with us to the company involved until the end of the investigation, and then only if you are in agreement.
As part of the investigation we may send details of your food complaint to:
- Manufacturer or importer of the food
- Retailer where you bought the food , it's head office, the restaurant or business where you may have eaten.
- Local Authority where the manufacturer or importer is based.
We ask for their comments on what caused the problem and the precautions normally taken, or which will be taken in the future, to prevent this happening. We ask the producer's or importer's local council to provide information on hygiene conditions at the production plant, the precautions taken and how well they usually comply with legal standards.
Possible enforcement action
If we are satisfied an offence has been committed, further action will be taken in accordance with our enforcement policy. This ranges from warning letters to a formal caution or prosecution.
The Food Safety Act 1990 contains a legal defence known as 'due diligence'. Where a business is able to show they have taken all reasonable precautions they may be able to rely on this as a legal defence in any prosecution, even though the food was sold to you in an unsatisfactory condition. In such circumstances we may decide not to prosecute.
Further help we may need from you
If we think a prosecution in the Magistrates Court or a formal caution is appropriate, we ask if you are willing to provide a witness statement and possibly attend court as a witness. If you are unhappy about doing this it is important that you tell us because it significantly affects the way the case can be dealt with.
Outcome of the investigation
Food complaint investigations can be lengthy. It can take several months to obtain all the necessary information which shows whether a food business has a due diligence defence. We need this information before we can finalise the investigation and any enforcement action. Once our investigation is complete, we write to you and explain our conclusions and any action we propose to take.
If an investigation has been completed and resolved informally, the retailer or manufacturer concerned normally requests the complainant's name and address so they can apologise or recompense them. We only release this information if we have obtained your permission, so please advise if you are unhappy about your details being released.
If you have any queries regarding the information above:
- please contact the |Environmental Health & Licensing Division
- download our |food complaint advice leaflet
