A NUMBER of takeaways in the borough have failed an undercover Trading Standards allergy sampling test.

Officers visited several outlets recently and told staff they had specific allergies to peanut to milk and could not eat food with these ingredients.

Six out of ten curries and starters sampled failed the allergen testing.

All three onion bhajis contained peanut, two out of three curries included peanut and one had milk.

Food which failed was found to contain small traces of peanut or milk measured in parts per million but even these amounts could be deemed dangerous to those with allergies.

It is classed as unsafe by the public analyst.

The failures were believed to be by cross contamination or because outlets did not read the ingredients labels properly and take on board declared warnings.

Trading standards officers found chefs were not reading ingredients labels properly when cooking therefore would not have seen labels that indicated flour or sauce being used may contain peanuts.

The local authority has not named the takeaways involved in the sampling test.

Cllr Carl Sweeney, cabinet member for environment at Wigan Council, said: “It is really shocking that severe allergies such as peanuts and milk are not being taken seriously by food premises.

“Our trading standards officers recognise the difficulties food premises have from the risk of cross contamination, especially in busy kitchens.

"However businesses should conduct a risk assessment or consider not providing allergen free meals to help protect the public.

"Kitchens are very busy places and given our findings, anyone suffering from a food allergy needs to carefully consider that when they place an order, the potential for mistakes to be made and also the risk of accidental cross contamination.”

All affected premises have been revisited by trading standards officers and to take steps to avoid further failures.

For guidance from the Food Standards Agency for food outlets visit food.gov.uk/business-guidance.