Trading Standards law dictates that food descriptions on menus, adverts, chalkboards or given verbally must not be false or misleading. A description can become false or misleading due to something being left out of a name or phrase, for example:
- The most common description, which is left out of a menu making it misleading, is the wording ‘formed’ or ‘reformed’. A reformed product has been chopped, processed, and formed into a particular shape, usually to resemble a slice of meat or piece of seafood.
The most frequent examples of these products are reformed ham, chicken, and scampi; and to properly describe these products the word ‘reformed’ must be included on any descriptions of these.
Other important descriptions are:
- Homemade: which should be used only for food made on the premises.
- Fresh: which must not have been frozen or canned.
- Suitable for vegetarians: which must not contain any animal products.
- Onion rings: which must be made from rings cut from an onion and not describe products made from chopped onion and potato.
- Smoked: which must be traditionally-smoked food, not food that has chemicals added to give a smoke flavour.
- Steak and burger weights: which must be stated as the approximate uncooked weight and warning that the weight may reduce during the cooking process applied.
- Cornish Pasty: Describing or naming a dish that may be misleading – Cornish Pasty is a protected name that tells the customer that the pasty was made in Cornwall – so Beef & Vegetable Pasty might be more appropriate for a “Cornish Pasty” made outside of Cornwall.
- Whole Tail Scampi: Should be exactly as it says whole tail and nothing else.
- With the introduction of new regulations (December 13, 2014) you must indicate which dishes contain ingredients likely to cause an allergic reaction (for more information click here).
This list is by no means exhaustive, common sense and adopting an honest approach will allow you to correctly word the food descriptions on your menu.
Selling whole cuts of meat such as steaks or whole fillets of fish can be problematic if you do not state that weights are approximate and the uncooked weight then you could be leaving yourself open to a prosecution for selling produce not as described. As with items such as burgers you need to state the uncooked weight on your menu … so a 6oz burger on the menu is 6oz uncooked, but might be only 5oz by the time it’s cooked.