Food complaints

Food complaints can be made in relation to alleged food poisoning, the hygiene standards of a particular premises, actual food contamination or issues with labelling and composition.

Allergens, labelling and composition complaints, plus animal feed

These are dealt with by Leicestershire Trading Standards.  If you have a complaint or concern about these issues you should contact them directly.

Alleged food poisoning

If you suspect you have food poisoning please contact your GP or healthcare professional so that they can carry out tests and check whether you need any treatment.  It is also important that we understand the specific type of food poisoning bacteria that has made you ill, and this cannot be done without formal testing. 

Without a formal test result there is often little we can do.  Please avoid self diagnosis.  There are many possible causes of feeling ill other than food poisoning, for example norovirus; it is often not the last thing that you ate as it can take many days or even weeks to develop.

If you work as a food handler you must not return to work until well, usually at least 48 hours after being free of symptoms.

Food contamination complaints

We accept complaints of food contamination where the food was purchased in our district. We may need to liaise with other local authorities to investigate further, especially where the food has been manufactured outside our area.

Food hygiene complaints

You can complain or comment to us about hygiene standards at food businesses in our district.  Anonymous or vexatious complaints are not usually investigated.

How to register a complaint

So that we are able to investigate the complaint and then respond to you, please email us at environmentalhealth@melton.gov.uk with your:

• name
• contact details 
• summary of the complaint (including any dates, times and illness symptoms, as appropriate) 

We may need to contact you for more information before we can investigate, so a contact telephone number would be helpful.