Food safety for consumers

To complain about a food product or a food business, please email us on eh@hart.gov.uk or phone 01252 774421.

You can also report a food issue using our environmental health form:

Report a food issue

Food Complaints

We will deal with complaints about food bought in Hart that poses a public health risk.

Please note, we can't investigate anonymous complaints and can't assist with any claims for compensation. Claims for compensation are a civil matter that you must take up with the manufacturer and, if necessary, through the courts.

We will investigate food that:

• is not safe to eat or actually makes you ill (read NHS advice on food poisoning)
• is so contaminated it could not reasonably be eaten (such as a mouldy pie)
• contains a foreign object (such as a piece of glass in a loaf of bread)

For formal action to be considered against the food business, there will have to be:

• a public health risk
• a good chain of evidence (such as details of where the food was bought and any relevant packaging)
• evidence that the business concerned has not taken all reasonable steps to prevent the problem

For relatively minor problems it is best to complain directly to the company that sold you the food.

We can't investigate certain complaints

Please contact Hampshire County Council’s trading standards service for:

• false descriptions and/or inappropriate labelling of food and drink
• complaints about food quality, for example sour milk, over-ripe fruit and vegetables
• food and drink that has been tampered with (for example added water or fat)
• food that is beyond its best before date

Please note: we can't conceal your identity if legal proceedings are taken.

If you are going to complain, we recommend you:

• keep as much of the food as possible, as well as any foreign bodies you found in it
• visit your GP and request a stool sample test for food poisoning
• keep any packaging and the receipt
• store the food appropriately until you pass it to us, for example in a fridge or freezer