Reporting complaints about food and food premises
We only investigate food safety matters that we consider present a significant public health risk.
Officers will respond to complaints about food related matters. These could range from unhygienic food premises, methods of food handling, food products that are unsatisfactory (mouldy, contaminated or "gone-off") and other related issues.
Our commitment to you
Following receipt of a complaint or request for advice, we will endeavour to contact you and commence our investigation or provide advice within three working days. We will endeavour to complete our investigation and decide whether we can take any statutory action within two months of receipt of your complaint.
Procedure for making a complaint
On making a complaint, you will be asked to provide your name and address and contact details (which will be kept confidential), together with details of your complaint.
It is helpful at this point if you could be as precise as possible in order to aid our investigation, for example, we will require details of:
- name or address of premises complained of
- precise nature of complaint
- name or description of person complained of, if relevant
Whatever the circumstances, it is essential you contact us as soon as possible. Following the completion of any investigation you will be advised of the outcome of any action that has been taken. In the case of complaints about food products, it should be noted that any investigation will not address the question of compensation.
We will not investigate a complaint where:
- there is no public health risk
- you no longer have the food item
- there is a long delay between you discovering the fault and telling us - deterioration of the food over time may make it impossible for us to investigate
- continuity of evidence is broken
- the complaint is anonymous
- you are not sure where you bought the product