Food standards
Bedford Borough Council's Environmental Health & Trading
Standards Service is responsible for dealing with food quality
issues, in practice this often takes the form of the
following:
Food Standards Issues:
- Wrong amount
- Wrong labels
- Wrong description
- Inferior product
Food Safety Issues:
- Foreign bodies
- Unfit food
- Mould
- Contamination
Environmental Health Officers will investigate
complaints relating to food quality by examining the food and then
visiting or contacting the supplier(s) and or manufacturers.
Difficulties can be encountered because of the number of
organisations involved in the chain of production and supply, and
time which may have elapsed between production and supply, supply
and purchase, and purchase and consumption. The EHO will keep the
complainant informed of progress.
Sometimes their investigations will result in enforcement action
being taken. More often they prompt improvements to be made in the
production – supply chain.
Food businesses are now strictly regulated and, particularly,
larger, national companies have their own arrangements for ensuring
food quality and investigating complaints. They try hard to ensure
that food is of good quality, what is expected and is safe to
eat.
If you do have a complaint about the quality of food purchased,
contact Environmental Health & Trading Standards. If
possible, keep the receipt and packaging for the food and write
down where and when you bought it. Keep the food refrigerated if it
is perishable.
These arrangements do not affect your statutory rights to raise
your concerns directly with the supplier or manufacturer of the
food.
