School of Hygiene

More than 33 tonnes of suspected illegal frozen food products have been seized following a major operation led by the Food Standards Agency's National Food Crime Unit (NFCU), supported by local authority teams.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council's Environmental Health team played a key role in the investigation, alerting the FSA after uncovering frozen food products with fraudulent labelling and no traceability during local inspections earlier this year.

Working alongside the NFCU and enforcement partners including Greater Manchester and Staffordshire Police, Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) have helped identify affected premises, remove products from sale, and ensure potentially impacted businesses withdraw and recall stock where necessary.

In total, more than 33 tonnes of suspected illegal food products have been seized since the operation began, including over 8 tonnes removed during 111 visits carried out by local authorities.

A Stoke-on-Trent City Council spokesperson said: “This is a great result. Removing more than 33 tonnes of suspected illegal frozen food from sale and making it clear that we won’t tolerate businesses who try to mislead customers. We alerted the FSA to investigations we carried out earlier this year, which found a premises was selling frozen food products with fraudulent labels and no traceability.

“Cases like these pose a safety issue to the public and we are continuing to take firm action to remove these products from the market and have been contacting premises who may have received affected products and ensure they are withdrawn and recalled.”

Andrew Quinn, Head of the FSA’s NFCU said: “Food fraud is not a victimless crime. It undermines legitimate businesses and erodes consumer trust. In this case, the concern is one of traceability and food safety: mislabelled frozen food products can pose health risks. The NFCU remains committed to protecting consumers and ensuring that criminal activity has no place in the UK food system.”

There is no indication of a health risk to the public, however if people with concerns about a product they have purchased are advised to contact their local Environmental Health team.