Milk bars under the microscope. Irregularities in over 70 percent of premises

The inspection covered 91 milk bars throughout Poland. The most objections concerned the labeling of dishes - as many as 72 percent of the inspected batches had irregularities in terms of the composition and name of the dishes sold.

The most common omissions included the lack of a list of ingredients, lack of information on allergens, providing a list of ingredients only at the customer's request, an incomplete or inconsistent list of ingredients, incorrect presentation of allergens, the use of too general dish names and discrepancies between the declared and actual composition of dishes.

Saithe instead of cod

Laboratory tests revealed irregularities in 9.3 percent of the batches inspected. They concerned the presence of undeclared meat raw materials and the inconsistency of the fish species with the declaration. For example, in a dish offered as "beef rump steak" laboratory tests showed the presence of pork, in a dish declared as "Atlantic cod" the presence of saithe was found.

What information should be available to customers?

Every customer of a milk bar should be able to independently read the name of the dish and the full list of its ingredients. This information should be easily accessible - for example in a menu, on a board or in a publicly available catalogue. The key is that this does not require asking the staff.

The name of the dish should be precise and allow you to know its actual nature. Too general or fancy names such as "dish of the day" or "fish" are not sufficient. For example, the term "grilled pollock fillet" gives the customer much more information than the word "fish".