Who do I report this to? Food allergy

[BountyGhost]

My DD (10) has a severe nut allergy. Today we had a very near miss - she went out with her friend to a local park and on the way home they stopped at a corner shop. It's a privately owned local shop (not a chain). She bought a packet of cookie biscuits. Branded but not the ones we normally get. I've always (since we have known about her allergy) told her to check the ingredients labels before buying something. She did but the ingredients weren't in English. They were in a foreign language (and no English translation was provided). Her friend bought them, tried one and said "oh there's no nuts, it must be safe". DD had one small bite and immediately realised the blooming things had hazelnut in them.. 😡

Luckily it isn't one of the nuts she's allergic to and she was fine (thank goodness). The corner shop manager said he got them from the cash and carry, offered my dd's friend a refund and said otherwise there's nothing he can do. So my question is, who do I report this to? Presumably if a cash and carry is selling them then they are on sale elsewhere. Is it trading standards, the food standards agency or someone else?

Surely if the ingredients were in a foreign language and she couldn’t read what they contained she shouldn’t have eaten them. I don’t see that you need to report it to any one, unless you’re saying the ingredients should have also been in English in which case I believe it’s trading standards, just make sure she understands not to try them next time no matter whether someone says they don’t taste as if they have nuts in.
I’m glad your daughter was ok, it must have been very scary for her

Report what? I shop at the Chinese supermarket a lot and none of the packaged foods has the ingredients written in English. A lot of world foods shops don’t have ingredients written in English. They don’t have to be.

This is on your kid. She is old enough to understand her allergy, and having someone eat one and say “no nuts” is utterly ridiculous. Sounds like you need more conversations with her about personal safety and responsibility.

If they were labelled as guaranteed nut free then this would be different, bur she couldn’t read the label so you don’t know and she absolutely shouldn’t have eaten them. I’d be furious with my kid if they had been that stupid.

This is 100% an educating your daughter problem not a ‘who should I try to blame it on’ problem.

Your DD should know at 10 if she can't read the ingredients she shouldn't try them - and should really not be relying on a friend who says they are OK. I am glad she is safe but she needs to be smarter and take ownership if she wants to be trusted to go out with friends.

I just googled and apparently the importers are legally required to add a label with the ingredients and allergens in English. If they don’t, then you can report to trading standards. I won’t be reporting our local Chinese supermarket.

A lot of people don’t know how trading stands work so just so you know, they don’t deal with individual complaints/compensation etc. You report the issue to them, and they’ll investigate or not and then decide on the outcome (warnings, shutting down, if anything rises to criminal level etc). But they don’t do anything on an individual level so you wouldn’t get anything, wouldn’t even be informed of the outcome. But that’s who you would report an issue to.

Seriously though, your kid has an allergy, couldn’t read the label and ate it anyway. You need to do some parenting.

It is illegal in England to sell food items that aren't labeled in English. You should report it to your local Trading Standards office (and probably the Food Standards Agency, given the allergen issue).

Edit to add - it's not just the importers who are at fault, the shop is breaking the law.

Just had a look and the Food Standards Agency suggest reporting allergen labeling issues to your local Food Safety Team. You can get their contact details here: https://www.food.gov.uk/contact/consumers/find-details/contact-a-local-food-safety-team

But they don’t do anything on an individual level so you wouldn’t get anything, wouldn’t even be informed of the outcome.

This seems to vary council by council. I have reported a couple of things to different London boroughs over the years. Some came back and informed me of the outcome. Others, as you say, didn't.

Trading standard and environmental health team. And Food Standards Agency.

Food sold in the UK must legally have allergens printed in English.

Yes they do have to be in English if being sold in the UK - it’s the law.

Regardless of reporting this, your daughter needs a good talking to. You can't always taste nuts in a food product, she was very stupid to buy something where she couldn't see the ingredients and ask her friend to taste one.

Telling your DD to check the label is clearly not enough. She needs to know that if the label isn't in english and doesn't clearly show it is safe then she shouldn't eat it. She needs to know what "safe" actually looks like. If she doesn't have the intelligence to manage this then she's too young to go out with a friend without parental.supervision. You can report the shop to trading standards for failing to put a translation label on but I doubt anything will come of it.

I mean it's all very well "reporting" corner shops but at the end of the day it's your DD who suffers if she insists on eating things when she doesn't know what's in them. Better to be in one piece than "right" in my opinion. She was lucky this time, but the most important takeaway is that she needs to take responsibility for her own health, regardless of whether or not a corner shop is wrong.

The OP can do both though! Reinforce to her daughter how lucky she was and follow up on the shop making sure the food has a legal label.

It’s still a legal requirement that food sold here in the uk has clear and legible ingredient labelling

As a mum to a teen with a peanut allergy, I'm afraid I agree with this.

Agree, my elderly Mum reported some rogue traders to trading standards mid job and they were brilliant.

Came out, stopped the work, made them make the home safe, spoke to the boss, allowed them to finish the work to the original quote, then checked it was completed to a satisfactory standard. All the while keeping my mum in the loop and supporting her.

Your daughter clearly doesn’t realise stupid decisions like that can cost her her life. Yes report it, but you need to massively step up her understanding of her allergy.

As a mother and wife to people with severe allergies: what the hell was your DD thinking?! Why on earth was she eating food that could kill her? Obviously ingredients should be in English and it needs reporting. But obviously also if you are severely allergic to a food then you only eat products you are 99.9% sure are safe, and never foods where you don’t know what the ingredients are! (And anyone telling you ‘it tastes fine’ should be roundly ignored). I understand she is 10, a child and just wants to be like her friends, but if she isn’t mature enough to say ‘I can’t eat that’, she isn’t mature enough to play out unsupervised.

You need to educate your daughter, not report anyone as there is nothing to report. If she doesn't know what's in in, don't eat it. It really is that simple.

Trading Standards. Food labelling regs require that there is a label in English on the item.

Your daughter needs reminding that if she can’t ascertain the ingredients then she can’t eat the food.

Yes, legally they should have an English translator of ingredients, but you really really need to talk to your dd and hammer home that she must never eat anything that she hasn't read the ingredients of. That was a really silly thing to do on her part.

Another one agreeing with this. She is obviously too young to be allowed out without supervision. You need to put a rocket underneath her to really emphasise that if she can't understand the ingredients list she does not eat, whether it's because it's not in English or has an ingredient she isn't sure of.

Your head must be in a mess though knowing how close a call it was. Good luck with reporting - I didn't realise that even "world shop" items need to be in english so I've learnt something too.

There is something to report. The law was broken. Ingredients must be clearly listed in English in the UK.

But also if your daughter can’t read the ingredients for any reason she just can’t eat it OP. As I know you know.
It often happens in parties that mini snacks and bars have no ingredients on the packet…because the ingredients were listed on the outer packaging but that has been removed. So it’s common enough to come across foods when out and about that have no labelling. You need to be sure she knows she can’t eat anything if she isn’t certain what’s in it.

I do sympathise. She is only 10 and having allergies is hard. My DS has food allergies too.