Food Contamination

[jadyn]

Which laws/regulations/statutes cover the contamination of a canned foodstuff with a chocolate wrapper. The wrapper was found in a cannned ready meal and looks like it was put there by a disgruntled employee.

I'd like to know which regulations etc this contravenes which would enable my local trading standards/environmental health staff to take the retailer or manufacturer to court if they decide this is the best course of action.

thanks.

[factor-fiction]

What feature of the wrapper made it look as if it was put there by a disgruntled employee? Was there a note scribbled on it?
Are you hoping for compensation ?
Have you contacted the manufacturer or your tading standards office?

[jadyn]

The canning line must have some basic food hygiene regulations in place and they must tell their employees what's acceptable behaviour and practice. Even if they allow they're employees to eat on the job, they must surely provide some means of disposing of such things as wrappers safely. It follows that a wrapper found in a sealed can can only have been put there deliberately.

I've worked for a supermarket myself and I know that the buyers inspect the canning lines to check on the likelihood of this sort of thing happening. If they think it could happen, they tell the manufacturer to stop food consumption on the production line or else.

Compensation? No. My teenage son almost threw the cooked product at his mother out of shock when he found the wrapper What I want to do is to allow the manufacturer to investigate the complaint so that this situation doesn't happen to another parent. I'd guess that you wouldn't want a similar encounter with your offspring and I'd remind you that despite this compensation culture prevalent in the UK, not everyone is out screw money out of retailers/manufacturers.

Finally, the can and wrapper went back to the retailer for them to investigate. They are looking into it and will write to me. What would be the point of jumping out and down in a trading standards office and reading about the supplier being fined thousands months later? I just want them to accept responsibility and do their utmost to ensure no one else has this experience.

[jadyn]

As I said, I'm curious to know what legislation would have been used against the supplier had it gone to court.

[bednobs]

i dont really understand how ANY legislation/law/court case could prevent a malicious act by an employee. Also you mention the retailler being taken to court but i also cant really see how they are responsible either.

the situation you descrie is that there should be either something in place to stop employees eating by the canning line or providing ways of removing wrappers but how does that work if it's a malicious act -the employee could stuff something in their sock to put in for example.