If you bought food from a shop, or had a meal at a restaurant or cafe and found it contained something that shouldnt be there - for example, plastic or hair, then this can be classed as a complaint.

 

The Environmental Health Service of Havant Borough Council has qualified Environmental Health staff to investigate complaints about food and to take suitable enforcement action to protect the safety of food. Contact the Team on (023) 9244 6016 or send an e-mail.

 

The powers to investigate your Food Complaint are contained in the Food Safety Act 1990. Once the relevant information has been collected by the officer investigating your complaint, the most appropriate action will be determined by reference to national and local guidance on food safety. 

 

In many cases action taken will be informal. The investigating officer will give you an explanation of the outcome of the investigation and, with your agreement, disclose your details (i.e. name, address, etc) to the food business concerned. The Customer Services section of most major food companies like to contact customers to provide assurance of the quality of their products.

 

In some cases, it will be more appropriate to consider formal action. This may be prosecution in the Magistrates Court or Formal Caution. For the matter to proceed to prosecution, the investigation has to be conducted as a criminal investigation and sufficient evidence collected to prove the offence beyond all reasonable doubt. Additionally, the Council may need to counter any claim by the food business that it had done everything possible to prevent the occurrence of the offence. This is a legal defence under the Food Safety Act 1990. Even where the Council has sufficient evidence, it may still decide not to pursue a prosecution if this were not in the public interest.

 

It may take several weeks for the investigation to collect all the necessary evidence on which to decide what action is appropriate. For example, we may need to contact the Companys Head Office, their importers, manufacturers or suppliers. In addition, we liaise with the local authority where the food is produced to gain further up-to-date information. This approach has the advantages of assisting food businesses to prevent similar problems in the future.