Reporting unsafe food:

You can report it to the shop that sold you the food, or to the manufacturer. They will often carry out similar investigations to the local authority for their own quality and safety assurance procedures, and they may compensate you.

Alternatively you can report it to the Environmental Health Team. The Council doesn't pursue any claims for compensation or refunds on your behalf.

Contact the Environmental Health Team using the online complaint form or by calling 01322 343434.

We are able to deal with food:

  • That isn't safe
  • That contains a foreign object 
  • That is being sold after its 'use by' date

We are unable to deal with food:

  • Food purchased outside the Borough of Dartford
  • Complaints about damaged food, where food safety is not affected. In these cases, you should contact the business that sold the food directly
  • Food Complaints which are dealt with by Kent County Council Trading Standards, such as
    • Food that has no 'Use By' or 'Best Before' date 
    • Food which is contaminated with chemicals or improper additives
    • Food that has the wrong labelling or is inappropriately labelled
    • Food which is described wrongly or misleadingly
    • Food which is not of the declared weight

What should I do with the food:

  • Store the food as it would normally be stored in the shop 
  • If you are worried about contaminating other food, put the complaint and its wrapper in a clean bag or container
  • Don't try to remove any foreign bodies from the food. If you do, keep all the parts found in a clean bag or container
  • Don't clean or interfere with the food in case it needs to be analysed
  • If the food was part of a multi-pack, we will need to examine the rest of the pack, but please do not open the remaining items
  • Keep any food wrappers and outer packaging
  • Keep any receipts

What happens next:

We will gather as much information as possible to determine the source of your complaint and the reasons why it occurred. When the investigation is complete, we will decide on the appropriate course of action and advise you.

In certain circumstances, we may decide that it is not necessary to carry out a detailed investigation. In this case, the food may be given to the manufacturer so that they can look into the problem themselves and try and prevent it from happening again.