Food labelling and safety tests helping to keep residents safe
Businesses that produce or sell food are being urged to ensure they are not putting customers at risk after over half of recently assessed food samples were found to be incorrectly labelled.
In 2023/24 Oxfordshire County Council’s Trading Standards team found 52 per cent of samples tested for labelling failed to comply with food standards laws, while 13 per cent failed compositional tests.
The service regularly undertakes testing on food products to ensure that labelling is accurate, and products do not contain any harmful materials or undeclared allergens such as peanuts or milk.
A total of 90 samples were collected from over 40 business premises within the county and a few online businesses with 84 tested for labelling.
Councillor Dr Nathan Ley, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Health, Inequalities and Safety, said: “Ensuring the safety and accurate labelling of food for its ingredients, nutritional content, and claims is crucial. Sometimes, it can literally be a matter of life or death."
"Whether intentional or not, an unreported allergen or misleading labelling can have severe consequences for both consumers and companies, making it crucial to understand and follow the laws.
“This is why I welcome testing by our brilliant Trading Standard team, who work with businesses to keep consumers safe.”
A range of foods were submitted including seasonings and spices for undeclared peanuts, milk for lead, canned vegetables for nutritional analysis, tea and rice for pesticides, flour for the mycotoxin ‘deoxynivalenol’, a variety of gluten free labelled foods for the presence of gluten, and canned fish for the presence of histamine.
Labelling issues identified included:
- Incorrect format of “best before end” durability dates
- The name of the food and the net weight not being in the same field of vision
- Instructions for use not being provided (instructions should be provided if consumers would find it difficult to use the food correctly without them)
- Incorrect nutrition declarations with higher than declared levels of carbohydrate, fibre and protein being found as well as incorrect energy calculations based on the declared nutrients
- General non-specific health claims being used without the support of an authorised health claim
- No name and address of a food business operator in Great Britain responsible for the food information
- Mandatory food information not provided in English
Jody Kerman, Head of Prevention, Protection and Trading Standards at Oxfordshire County Council, said: “We are all vulnerable consumers when it comes to the food we buy, as we must trust the labelling and claims made.
“Trading Standards has an important role in testing products and monitoring the market to ensure that food is safe, accurately labelled, and that consumers are getting what they paid for.”
Where issues were identified, Trading Standards would either work with businesses to resolve any concerns or bring them to the attention of other local authorities or the Food Standards Agency as appropriate.
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