If you have a complaint about food hygiene standards at a restaurant, takeaway or other food outlet, please contact our environmental health team.
You can report problems including:
- A complaint about a food business
- Deliberately contaminated food
- A food complaint
- Suspected food poisoning
For food displayed for sale, sold or used after its ‘use by’ date, falsely described food or an issue with food labelling or allergies please contact our trading standards team.
Suspected Food Poisoning
We would advise you that the only way to verify if someone is suffering from food poisoning is to analyse a faecal (poo) sample.
If you are still suffering from food poisoning symptoms (vomiting & diarrhoea), we strongly advise you contact your doctor by phone or email to make arrangements for a faecal (poo) sample taken. Please do not visit your GP directly at this current time unless they instruct you to do so.
The results of the analysis of the sample will confirm whether or not you are (or have been) suffering from food poisoning. If the results show that you do have food poisoning, we will be notified of this and we will contact you.
There are a number of different types of food poisoning. Some food poisoning bacteria can take up to 10 days before the body reacts to that bacteria.
If you are ill, and if it is in fact food poisoning, it could be due to something you have eaten in the 10 days leading up to the time when you became ill. It may not necessarily be the last meal/food which you have eaten.
Some viruses affect the body in the same way as food poisoning bacteria.
Eating out
If you are dining out or picking up a takeaway in Sandwell, you can check out a business's food hygiene rating before you order.
Go to the Food Standards Agency website and enter the name of a takeaway, restaurant, pub or club to find out its food hygiene rating. You can also search by town or postcode.