Blood in food

saffmonster

I bought some food from a well known fast food place in Jan. I found an unidentified red splodge on the bun :-O
I took the food back and it was sent off for testing. After weeks of them ignoring my emails, I eventually contacted environmental health. EH told me the splodge was blood and after investigations carried out by the restaurant and their suppliers suggested in a round about way that the blood was probably mine but they couldn't really prove where it came from. They have offered me food vouchers.
I'm really upset over this because I did take a bite from the food before I noticed the blood.
EH told me no DNA testing would be done because it's took expensive.
Where do I stand and can I take this any further?

System

Sounds horrible but its the risk you pay for having other people prepare your food. Who knows what goes on in the kitchen!

Decide what you want to be the outcome and send a letter to the party concerned. If they ignore it you'll have to take them to court (not sure what for though).

arcon5

What remedy are you seeking ?

saffmonster

I've no idea, because I don't know where I stand.

I certainly don't want their vouchers, this has completely put me off eating in any of their stores again.

neilmcl

saffmonster wrote: »

I've no idea, because I don't know where I stand.

I certainly don't want their vouchers, this has completely put me off eating in any of their stores again.

Then don't. Vote with your feet and move on.

arcon5

Well you would be entitled to a refund for a start.

As for any additional compensation there is no hard and fast rule. But since you wasn't injured, nor appeared to have suffered any losses we would be working upwards from £0....

somethingcorporate

If you do not know what you want how do you expect anyone else to know?

I suggest you try and figure out what you want (money/apology/lifetime supply of free food) and write to them and ask. You could always offer to pay for the DNA testing but I am not sure what you would be hoping to prove, aside from the blood not being yours.

Thomas_Hardy

somethingcorporate wrote: »

If you do not know what you want how do you expect anyone else to know?

I suggest you try and figure out what you want (money/apology/lifetime supply of free food) and write to them and ask. You could always offer to pay for the DNA testing but I am not sure what you would be hoping to prove, aside from the blood not being yours.

Plus the sample has possibly/ probably now been destroyed.

lucy03

saffmonster wrote: »

I bought some food from a well known fast food place in Jan. I found an unidentified red splodge on the bun :-O
I took the food back and it was sent off for testing. After weeks of them ignoring my emails, I eventually contacted environmental health. EH told me the splodge was blood and after investigations carried out by the restaurant and their suppliers suggested in a round about way that the blood was probably mine but they couldn't really prove where it came from. They have offered me food vouchers.
I'm really upset over this because I did take a bite from the food before I noticed the blood.
EH told me no DNA testing would be done because it's took expensive.
Where do I stand and can I take this any further?

It may be the case that Environmental Health have taken it further by visiting the restaurant and checking their processes. You could look to see if they have a food safety rating as that usually shows the visit date.

If you were looking for compensation, you might be able to write a polite letter to the company's Head Office explaining you were unhappy with the restaurant, the processes and are uncertain you want to eat there again. They may consider it reasonable to reimburse you for your costs and time involved in the matter, but I'd suggest this is likely to be a nominal sum of a few pounds.

Fire_Fox

Formal complaints procedure of the fast food chain in question will be on their website.