Trading Standards Week: Protecting the Food Chain

Warwickshire Trading Standards play an important role in protecting the food chain ‘from farm to fork’.

Trading Standards Animal Health Officers visits farms and markets to ensure that livestock is healthy and well care for and that animals which might harbour diseases such as BSE or contain medicines such as antibiotics, don’t enter the food chain. Trading Standards Officers check that animal feed is not contaminated, that food products are correctly labelled, (especially allergens) and that food is not being sold past its ‘use by date’.

Officers make regular visits to restaurants, takeaways, food retailers and manufactures to advise them on food safety law and take food samples to check for banned ingredients and meat and fish substitution (where a more expensive meat/fish is substituted for a cheaper one).

Consumers should be confident that when they buy food from their local shop or supermarket or eat out at a restaurant or take-away, that the food they eat is both safe and correctly labelled, so they know exactly what they are consuming.

Warwickshire Trading Standards, working together with the Food Standards Agency and our District and Borough Council Environmental Health teams aims to ensure that food is safe from farm to fork.

Top tips

Be safe! Always ask about allergens #foodallergy #foodsafety @foodgov

Do you run a takeaway or restaurant? Follow our allergen advice: http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/foodsafety  #foodallergy #foodsafety @foodgov

Always check what allergens are in the dish even if you have eaten it before, as recipes and ingredients can change #foodallergy #foodsafety @foodgov

Always carry prescribed allergy rescue medication with you and ensure family and friends know how to use it on you, if necessary #foodallergy #foodsafety @foodgov

Always check the use-by-date on fresh meat and dairy products #foodsafety @foodgov