Mouldy chocolates given as gift - would you contact the maker to tell them?

[BoobsOnTheMoon]

We were given a lovely looking box of handmade truffles by a very kind elderly relative. They have come from a very small independent maker local to said relative, who posted them to us last week.

DP just bit into one and it was green with mould all the way through (pic attached, absolutely definitely mould!)

They have no best before date and no ingredients list, but they're a Christmas themed box (mini Christmas pudding shapes etc) so I feel like they should have lasted at least until Christmas! The maker has a FB page and a very basic website but tbh I'm concerned that they're not sticking to food safety rules already with the lack of labelling, so who knows what they're doing food hygiene wise...

Would you bother contacting the maker to show them the mould and suggest they check their making process or adding best before dates? I really don't want to tell the relative who sent them as they will feel terrible and embarrassed about it and it's hardly their fault!

Presumably if said maker has been producing chocolates in excess of a year and still has customers and no similar negative reviews floating around then I would imagine it's far more likely your relative has has them knocking about a while and regifted them. Maybe it was them that removed the labels or information that came with the parcel who knows.

I don't think it's that fair to contact a business you aren't even the customer of (so have no contract of sale with) with what are ultimately (quite offensive) assumptions about food safety and quality control, particularly if you planned to do it publically (social media).

If you want to go to anyone I'd make the relative the first port of call and request the receipt for the facts. I wonder if it would be mysteriously unavailable 😆

Ultimately if I wasn't sure, I wouldn't pursue it. The business has no obligation to discuss it with you if you weren't a the customer anyway. If they really did go mouldy in a couple of weeks of purchase then others also will have and will take action.

If they are ones with fresh ingredients, maybe they should be kept in the fridge? But there should be storage instructions if this is the case!

This is what I’m thinking.
Maybe the best before date has been peeled off because an independent seller would have put a sticker with the best before date on.

Sorry, MN slow to update on Google d& keeps crashing.

Every council has a good safety team, or environmental health. It sounds like this company needs it!
How stupid of them. Inexperienced or not, this is putting people at risk.

This. Many truffles are made with fresh cream. There is an independent chocolate shop near to me. They don't include ingredients either. Just a menu of flavours. Their chocolates are fantastic but I always tell people to store in the fridge.

I agree. Breaching Natasha's Law and that's very serious. People without allergies don't always realise, but the law is there to stop people dying. I'd be contacting environmental health.

If the relatives have removed dates etc that’s one thing.

If there are no dates or no ingredients you should never just assume that someone else will deal with it. There are very good reasons why food manufacturers work closely with food safety teams.

This is what I thought. And if they’ve been in the post for weeks due to RM strikes then that could be the answer. As for there not being any ingredients list or bbe date, the original packaging/outer boxight have been removed by the relative who sent them. Ultimately, as they weren’t despatched to you direct from the maker it’s difficult for you to determine exactly a what’s happened here. However, it’s still worth contacting the maker to ask.

Where did I say I'd be going public on social media? Assumptions much!

Is it possible then that if they were made with fresh cream - if the OP's relative had them sitting in a warm house for two weeks before posting, and then a week in transit, that they could go mouldy without no particular fault on anyone's part aside from incorrect storage ?

There's no storage instructions. Possibly they should have been kept in the fridge tho, but the box was sealed with their logoed stickers and there is no evidence of labels being removed.

I'm as sure as I can be that relative wouldn't have removed labels or tampered with the box, they're very careful like that. They are the type that keep instruction manuals in a ring binder

No way of knowing if they're made with fresh cream as no ingredients list!

I'm going to email the maker by the way. Politely. Suggesting that maybe they "forgot" ingredients list and storage instructions and best before date...?

Unfortunately this isn't true - Natasha's Law doesn't apply to items sold online, but businesses do have to have a list of allergens available on request.

www.narf.org.uk/natashaslaw

The business should be registered as a food business with their local authority, who will then conduct periodic food inspections. This applies even to home businesses if they sell to the public. Please contact the EH team at the local authority.

Absolutely contact! That's absolutely horrendous 😷

Relative doesn't do anything online so will definitely have bought them in person, maybe at a local market or something? The maker's postcode is only one street over from relative's house.

I too think they are fridge truffles. You could phone the shop/maker and check this. If so they need a label and are NOT suitable for posting.

We've had homemade chocolates before that needed to be refrigerated due to fresh ingredients.
I wonder how long they were in transit for, our post has been dire.
Or possibly they were purchased a while ago .
Having said this I would think they need a list of ingredients and storage instructions as well as a best before date on the box. This could have been peeled off by your aunt if they were out if date but she thought they would be ok ( my MIL would definitely do this !) as chocolate without fresh ingredients does last ages.
It is worth contacting supplier.

Is it not just blue colouring? What flavour are they meant to be? It doesn't look organic like mould.

Unfortunately it still doesn't apply unless they bought it as a pre-packaged box of chocolates.

Anything you "pick" yourselves from a counter or something is exempt.

No idea what flavour it was meant to be as the list inside doesn't have pics to correspond but I suspect it's the marmalade truffle - it's a dark chocolate coating with orange peel on top, with a dark chocolate inside though. It's mould, not colouring. Trust me, I can see it for myself and touch the texture, and it is definitely mould.

They are the makers Christmas selection box which comes as a pre packed box. Not loose. Their FB page shows boxes of them all packed up already that are identical to the box I have here.

Maybe you can't tell from the photo but it's furry!!

I think if it's the case that your relative has made a choice of chocs that have been put in the box specifically for them at the stall / shop then they don't need allergen / date labels. Only if they were a pre packaged selection would they need the labels.

Real shame though, and you'd hope they would have told the customer that they needed to be refrigerated etc.

I'd probably contact them anyway, or your relative to see what they were told about storage. It would probably be worth the maker considering a sticker with storage instructions as they're most likely to be given as a gift and verbal instructions can't really be relied on to get passed on.

They are the makers Christmas selection box which comes as a pre packed box. Not loose. Their FB page shows boxes of them all packed up already that are identical to the box I have here.

In that case they're breaking the law - unless it did come with a tag/leaflet and your relative binned it?