APA News

  • A Feast of Fraudulent Food


    On 4 February, a director of a takeaway in Morley near Leeds, pleaded guilty at Leeds Magistrates court to ten charges made under the Food Safety Act and other food laws. He was fined £100 and ordered to pay £500 costs, the company was fined £1000 and ordered to pay £2000 costs.

    Having looked at the menu on line an officer from the West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service placed an order for a lamb curry, a lamb donner kebab, a margherita pizza, a ham pizza and a chicken tikka masala. Later that day, the meals were collected and submitted as formal samples to the West Yorkshire Public Analysts based less than two miles away.

    All five samples were found to breach one or more aspects of food law and Food Safety Act Certificates were issued by Dr Duncan Campbell and Dr Marian Thomas who directed the analysis.

    The only meat found in the lamb curry was beef and the donner kebab described on the menu as ‘100% lamb mince’ was found to contain only a diminutive amount of sheep meat with the remainder being chicken.

    The “cheese” on both pizzas was a 50:50 mixture of cheese and cheese substitute. In the Public Analyst’s opinion the name ‘pizza’ is a customary name for a product made with cheese and that the samples were not of the substance demanded within the meaning of Section 14 of the Food Safety Act 1990.

    The ham pizza was doubly lacking in that the “ham” was not pork but a cured poultry product.

    The chicken tikka masala was found to contain the colours Ponceau 4R and Tartrazine. Whilst the levels were not particularly high, changes to EU and UK legislation that came into force in June 2013 mean that Ponceau 4R is no longer permitted in sauces and seasonings. To use non-permitted food colours is an offence under the Food additives, Flavourings, Enzymes and Extraction Solvents (England) Regulations 2013.

    In October 2013, Trading Standards Officers visited the business to establish if the menu descriptions were accurate in relation to the ingredients being used. Advice was given by the officers at the time of the visit which was followed up in writing.

    Against this advice, the wording of the menus displayed on the premises was changed from ‘lamb’ to ‘meat’ curries and beef continued to be sold instead of lamb. However, the printed and online menus continued to state ‘lamb’. Mozzarella was not used due to the price. The defendant claimed that the ‘turkey stamps’ used as ‘ham’ on the pizza were called ‘ham’ on the bag, but this was not the case.

    Commenting on the case Duncan Campbell, a Past President of the Association, said “Food fraud has hardly been out of the news since the horsemeat incident of two years ago.  This type of small scale fraud is happening up and down the country and has been highlighted in reports by Which? and more recently by the Food Standards Agency.

    Unlike horsemeat the fraud does not take place far away in a long and complex supply chain but at the point of supply. Some takeaway proprietors choose to buy cheaper ingredients and pass them off as more expensive ones.  This is to the prejudice of customers and honest businesses alike. As with many aspects of food fraud it can only be detected by analysis.”