The survey of fish and chip shops from three cities including Manchester has revealed around one in six of the fish samples bought were not what we’d ordered.

45 samples of fish labelled cod or haddock bought from random fish and chip shops in Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester found one in six (16%) were mislabelled, with some of the samples being substituted for cheaper fish.

Two of the 15 samples of cod tested in Manchester were found to be haddock while in Glasgow five of the 15 samples of haddock tested were found to be whiting, which is similar to haddock but usually cheaper.

The survey by Which The results comes five months after the organisation tested lamb takeaways and found 40% had been contaminated with other meats, and some contained no lamb at all.

Following the publication of the Elliott Review in to the horsemeat scandal last week, half of consumers who buy takeaways said they aren’t confident that the food they buy is correctly described and contains the ingredients stated.

Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said:

“It’s unacceptable that people are being misled and that the food they have ordered is not what they’re told it is.

“Consumers need to feel confident in the food they buy so it’s good that the Government has committed to implementing the findings of the recent Elliott Review. It’s in the interests of responsible food businesses, as well as consumers, to make sure there are effective controls in place and a zero tolerance approach to food crime.”

Which? wants the Government to quickly implement all of the recommendations from the Elliott Review including setting up a new food crime unit within the Food Standards Agency, ensuring a more co-ordinated approach to food testing and industry checks are improved.

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