The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has confirmed that it received over 3,400 consumer complaints in 2017. Over a third of them related to unfit food.
Overall, the 2017 complaints saw an increase of 6% on the 3,200 reported in 2016, with the number of complaints relating to non-display of allergen information up significantly at 42%. A considerable increase was also noted among complaints relating to incorrect information on food labels at 17%.
According to FSAI, the majority of consumer concerns relating to allergen information included a variety of non-compliance issues such as lack of allergen information available in restaurants, confused messages regarding the presence of particular allergens in food; lack of awareness by food businesses of the legal requirement to display allergen information; allergens not highlighted on a food label; and allergens present in a food, but not indicated or displayed.
The categories of complaints were:
- 1,233 complaints of unfit food
- 896 complaints on hygiene standards
- 808 complaints on suspect food poisoning
- 183 complaints on incorrect information on food labelling
- 103 complaints on non-display of allergen information
- 102 other complaints