Food safety: Five things to watch out for

The owner of an Indian takeaway in North Yorkshire has been found guilty of manslaughter after a customer with a nut allergy was served a meal containing ground peanuts.

The trial was told Mohammed Zaman had cut corners by swapping the thickening agent almond powder for the cheaper groundnut powder, which contained peanuts.

Although the vast majority of restaurants are safe, a number each year are found to have breached laws and guidelines. BBC News looks at some things to be careful of when ordering food.

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They include peanuts, eggs, milk, fish, crustaceans and mustard.

Paul Wilson, who suffered an anaphylactic shock after eating a meal from Zaman's business, died before the change in the law, but the trial heard he had flagged up his peanut allergy to the restaurant and his meal had been labelled as "nut free".

David Pickering, of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), said: "Some [restaurants] will have it in a book, some will give you the information verbally. If they can't give you it, don't eat there."

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) says people are often still not given this information.

In a recent FSA and Allergy UK survey of more than 1,000 people, one in four said they or a family member had suffered an allergic reaction while eating out.

Chun-Han Chan, FSA allergy expert, said the food safety watchdog had translated allergy advice information into several different languages to provide the best possible guidance.

She said: "We want to stop unnecessary deaths and hospitalisations by helping food businesses provide accurate allergy information."

The FSA then conducted a wider study, published in February 2015, with 84 of 307 samples containing non-declared meat.

Of these, one-fifth had used beef instead of lamb. Others contained a presence of beef, chicken, pork or turkey. The law requires food to be accurately described with fines of up to £5,000 enforceable.

The FSA described this as "one of the simplest forms of food fraud", with spicy sauces often used to "mask differences in taste".

The CTSI said the move was usually driven by the price of meat.

Mr Pickering said: "Sometimes the takeaway isn't aware of the meat they are actually getting from their supplier.

"People want to know what they're eating, mostly due to their personal preference, but more importantly for religious reasons, as pork or beef are often used as substitutes."

Often, the restaurant or takeaway is helpless to spot this if it has been mislabelled by the supplier.

Saffron, a key ingredient in several cuisines, including Indian, Spanish, Turkish and Persian, is labour intensive and famously expensive.

Spanish saffron, which is known for its high quality, is sometimes actually saffron imported from other countries before being relabelled.

Mr Pickering said: "We're hoping the FSA will be more active in using international intelligence to spot where and when then these substitutes may appear."

The FSA said it monitored "shortages of raw materials and spikes in consumer demand" through its Emerging Risks programme.