Common food complaints

While discprepancies with food may appear alarming, most of the time they turn out to be harmless.

 

Here is a list of harmless issues that have been reported to local authorities throughout England:

 

 

Small hard drops of carbon are sometimes found in bread or cakes. These can vary in size and are usually black or grey. The carbon - or char - is overcooked dough which has flaked off the baking tins and there is no risk to health. Sometimes these can be mistaken for rodent droppings. We would advise you to contact the manufacturer.

 

 

Sometimes areas within a loaf of bread or cake can appear grey and greasy. The moving parts of food manufacturing equipment are lubricated with food safe grease which may occasionally contaminate the dough or mix and then baked in. This can also occur in products other than bread. We would advise you to contact the manufacturer.

 

 

If chocolate is stored at too high a temperature, fats within the chocolate separate and form a 'bloom' on the surface. This may look like mould. This complaint is common during the festive season when gift wrapped chocolate may be stored in warm living rooms, or in hot summer weather if it is not stored in the fridge. This is completely harmless.

 

 

Sometimes a pink, brown or reddish colouring of poultry meat may occur giving the meat an undercooked appearance. This can be due to myoglobin, a pigment which is rich in iron. Myoglobin is similar to haemoglobin and is found in muscle fibres and may be present in higher concentration near to the bone, leading people to believe that the chicken or turkey has not been cooked through. There are a number of reasons why myoglobin can be present in enough concentration to change the colour of the meat, the method of packaging, cooking and the type of bird that the meat came from are some of the factors. Uncooked meat has a more translucent appearance and the fibres break less easily than cooked meat. Sometimes the dark colour can disappear on contact with air. Uncooked areas will only change colour when cooked further.

 

 

Cardamom is the common name for certain plant species native to India and south-eastern Asia. The fruit - pod - is a small capsule with 8 to 16 brown seeds. The seeds are used as a spice or the pods can be used whole in pilau rice. Cardamom pods are sometimes mistaken by members of the public as rodent droppings or cockroaches.

 

 

Sometimes, spiders can come to Britain in fruit, vegetables and other products. One species of spider, The Huntsman or Giant Crab Spider, are large, brown, crab-like spiders that have flattened bodies that enable them to fit into very small crevices. This spider lives in tropical and subtropical regions and is common in houses where they eat cockroaches and other insects, but not Europe where it is too cold. It is transported throughout the world in banana shipments. It is harmless, but a large one can deliver a painful bite if carelessly handled. In the unlikely event that you are bitten contact a doctor.

 

 

During harvesting, sometimes small stones can be accidentally collected too. Stones of certain size, weight and appearance can be missed during the sorting process. As long as the manufacturer can show that all reasonable precautions were taken to try to stop this from happening, it is accepted that a number of these complaints will occur.

 

 

Sometimes we get complaints about hairs in food such as pizza, often these 'hairs' turn out to be mushroom fibres. The mushroom that we know is actually the fruiting body of the hidden mushroom plant!. This plant is made up of microscopic filaments - hyphae - which combine to form strands called mycelium. The mycelium grows in the soil on wood and leaves, or in commercial mushroom farming, compost. The mushroom body first develops as a tiny ball on the mycelium and grows to a certain size before being picked to eat! Sometimes, strands of mycelium can remain with the mushroom during preparation and cooking. When cooked, the fibrous mycelium can look like a coarse hair.

 

 

These are usually wasps or fruit flies. These insects are naturally associated with fruit and fruit growing areas. As they are small and light, some will inevitably get past the inspection process. They do not carry disease and are not a health risk. We would advise you to contact the manufacturer.

 

 

Small grubs are often found in canned/frozen vegetables, particularly tomatoes and sweetcorn. Their colour is often cream to greenish brown with long dark and pale bands, but this is variable. They can be up to 4cm in length. People think they may be maggots or caterpillars. These are moth larvae that live inside the food, and so are difficult to see during growing and processing. They are killed and sterilised by the canning process and so are not a health risk. Every effort is made to control these pests during growing but EEC Directives fix maximum levels of pesticide residues in food and to decrease their happening, more insecticides would have to be used.

 

 

These are 'Psocids' which are tiny grey or brown insects the size of a pin head, found in dried products such as flour and sugar. Psocids prefer warm, dark, humid conditions such as folds of packaging in domestic food cupboards. So products are usually infected in the home, not at the shop/manufacturer. They do not cause disease and are not a health risk. The presence of Psocids does not mean a house is dirty as they happen in the cleanest of homes.

 

 

Sometimes, tinned grapefuit will be covered in white specks that look like mould. Also the liquid in the tin may be cloudy. This is actually a natural constituent of the grapefruit called "Naringin" and it gives the fruit its distinctive bitter taste. Variations in the weather cause an increase in the amount of Naringin the fruit contains and when canned, this excess Naringin crystalizes out. The product is safe to eat and there is no health risk. We would advise you to contact the manufacturer.

 

 

White fish such as Cod or Haddock may be infested with a small, round brownish yellow worm. These are found in the flesh. They are killed by cooking and are harmless to humans. The affected parts of the fish are usually cut away, but some may be overlooked.

Skin, bone, etc

 

Products made from meat and/or poultry may contain small bones or skin or parts of blood vessels. These are unsightly but not a health risk as they are normal parts of the original animal.

Struvite

 

Certain naturally occurring elements in fish may develop into hard crystals during the canning process. These crystals may be mistaken for glass fragments and are called struvite. It is not harmful and will be broken down by stomach acids if swallowed. It is especially common in tinned salmon. Struvite crystals will be dissolved if placed in vinegar and gently heated. Glass will not.