Food Hygiene

Food Standards Agency (opens in a new window)

Labelling and composition

There are legal controls on the quality and ingredients of food, and legal requirements to provide detailed labelling on most food.

This gives people the opportunity to choose carefully what they eat. We help to make sure that food is adequately labelled with information for people to make their choice, and to be able to compare available products.

Officers carry out inspections and provide advice and guidance to shopkeepers, market traders, wholesalers, manufacturers, importers and all food suppliers. Samples are also taken, products tested and complaints investigated to ensure that food standards are maintained. Enforcement action, including prosecution, can follow in the more serious cases and where advice is ignored.

The checks we perform ensure that:

• Consumers know what they are buying.
• Labels are truthful.
• Food products meet any legal minimum standards.
• Additives included in food products are within the permitted safe limits.
• Items that come into contact with food are safe.

We also ensure that animal feeds meet required standards and enforce animal health and welfare for livestock on farms. For more information on animal feed, follow the link.

We work closely with the Food Standards Agency (opens in a new window) . They investigate national concerns and make recommendations about food safety and standards. They also issue food hazard warnings, and we deal with any related local issues.

If you believe that the description of some food you have bought was misleading whether by a description on a menu or a label or if the picture led you to believe you were buying something different, we would like to know about it. Please contact  Directgov (opens in a new window) or call Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06.