Glass in food

[becks77]

Hi,
When I worked in the food industry we had a customer complaints dept. that was attached to quality control who were responsible for quality and therefore complaints about quality.
Unfortunately these were not few and far between however, firstly I would contact the manufacturer, the name of which should be on the wrapping to the product,(unless it was an own label product,) remember to tell them the bar code and bb date and any other useful info, not forgetting the exact name of the product that appears on the wrapping (many products have very similar names) there will also be another number on the packaging that will identify the production line .
Tell them exactly what happened and where the product was bought, They should do a full investigation and get back to you very quickly with a report and lots of compensation.
If it was an own label again give them all the info (above) and get angry...what if it had been LO who had eaten the foreign object?
If you decide to follow the EHO route aswell I think this branch covers your area 17 Carrongrange Grove, Falkirk - 01324 562871

Hope everything turns out well
HTH
Becks

[Milims]

you should find your local environmental health department in your local council. Good luck!

[Annpan]

Thanks guys

[Helsbells]

Just wanting to share my food aliens with you all.
I once found a stone in my museli! I thought it was quite ironic as people often call museli gravel!
We sent it of and got a assive box of museli and cereal bars n stuff!

[Annpan]

I phoned them this morning... very apologetic and the man on the phone said "You swallowed glass!!!!" in a very surprised way.

Now, I am to expect a letter in the post but he also asked me to take the packaging and the 'foreign object' into the store. I don't mind taking it in but how am I to refuse to give it to them? Any tips?

[becks77]

Hi,
Well done, is it possible to take a picture with the date on it and then take foreign body, packaging and picture to store, tell them they are welcome to the picture once the manager has signed it as to being a true representation of the items and packaging, but they cant keep the glass as you have already taken it up with the EHO's (doesn't matter if you have or haven't or intend to or not) but you should keep the evidence....just in case.
Best of luck

[Graye]

So, not content with having sold you something potentially lethal they now want you to traipse back to the shop? I think they should be coming to see you, and bringing a representative from the bacon company with them. They will almost certainly try to keep the "object" as well as the packaging and you would feel much more comfortable telling them to get lost in your own home. The best they will be able to do is offer you a few more packs of bacon. Would you feel happy accepting them given that the problem is probably still there? They will not want you to approach EH as they will almost certainly be fined heavily.

I think you really do need to go the EH. Who is to say what sort of lax procedures they have at the bacon packaging company? Without EH inspectors becoming involved they will either not be fully aware of the problem or not care and the next time glass finds its way into a pack of bacon it might have a fatal outcome. A sliver of glass like that could do untold damage in the digestive system. You were so lucky that the piece you swallowed was a tiny chunk and not a sliver.

[Stonehead]

When I was a child, yes, many years ago, my mum bought a tub of margarine. We had used about half when she scraped some out to butter some bread and revealed...

...a severed finger tip!

This was in the days before modern quality control and food safety regs. The company had known a worker had lost a finger but had only thrown out a number of tubs that they thought the finger would be in. They hadn't cleared the entire run and so we got a free finger with our margarine.

The other gruesome one I know about was when my brother was working for KFC. They had a customer gag at a table in the restaurant, then come to the counter looking pale and holding an offending piece of chicken in front of him. Except it wasn't chicken. It was a mouse!

The investigation concluded that the mouse had fallen into the machine that coats the chicken with the seasoning. It had been packed into a drum and then shipped to the restaurant.

The bloke at the KFC who'd added chicken from that drum to the frier hadn't been paying attention (racing to do three jobs at once) and simply tipped some chicken pieces into the basket, then dropped them in the hot oil. Then drained it, flung into the box and served it to the unsuspecting customer.

The customer got quite a whack of compensation for that incident.

In the case of the margarine, we got a year's supply of the stuff. And remember, this was early 1970s margarine. Ugh!