Contaminated packet of food.

[Beswad]

What's the best approach to dealing with a packet of food I bought which found to be contaminated with blue colour?

Do I write to the company or inform local Health and Safety?

[Buenchico]

Your statutory rights are with the retailer, not the manufacturer. Complain to the shop where you bought the product.

Chris

[fredkins]

What kind of food are you talking about

[Beswad]

Thanks Chris. But I would have thought the responsibility lies with the manufacturer.

It's a packet of pork crackling fredkins.

[ladyalex]

Depends how annoyed you are about he contamination.
As Buenchico says, your rights are with the retailer to whom you can complain.
Or you could contact your local council Environmental Health department and turn them in...

[Buenchico]

I'll repeat that your statutory rights are with the retailer, not the manufacturer. (If you buy a telly which then explodes and burns your house down, it's the retailer who, in the first instance is held responsible, not the manufacturer. It would be up to the retailer to then claim against the manufacturer).

However most food production companies in the UK take their responsibilities seriously, so you'd probably get a positive response if you wrote to the manufacturer.

Blue colourants within the food production process are usually used to indicate to indicate that the end of a particular production run is imminent. (It's similar to he way that till rolls have a pink banding to warn checkout operators that they need to change the till roll). The colourants are completely harmless but blue-dyed products aren't normally allowed to reach the packaging stage. So there would be little point complaining to 'Health & Safety' officials, as blue-dyed pork crackling is no less safe than the regular product (and perfectly legal to sell).

Chris

[fredkins]

You can just go to your retailer they will do something about it,like give you another packet of pork scratchings.This is what happened to me with a tin of tomatoes that had maggots in,I was given another tin and a voucher for £2.00,not good enough.It's all about what you want to get out of this,if you are not happy then take photographs etc and go for manufacturers.

[Beswad]

Thanks for the great answers people. Will take up your advices.