Cod that isn’t cod, “organic” vegetables covered in pesticides, dubious food dyes—how much do you know about what’s really on your plate in a restaurant?

Every year, millions of us pay extra for free-range eggs, sustainable fish and organic vegetables to avoid consuming harmful chemicals. We steer clear of certain “E numbers” linked to medical conditions and we opt for locally produced food.

So when we go out for a meal, perhaps spending our entire weekly shopping budget, we expect the food sourcing to be just as considered. We’d be wrong.

Not only do the ethical and health standards of food served in restaurants—from Indian takeaways to top-class eateries—often fall some way short of what you’d eat at home, but some establishments are actually conning customers. Menus are peppered with labels such as “sustainable”, “local” and “organic”, which allow restaurants to charge a premium, but the truth can be very different.    

Part of the problem is that policing of restaurants is pretty much non-existent. In 2006, Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council prosecuted Julie’s Restaurant, patronised by Kate Moss and Kylie Minogue, for describing meat as organic when it wasn’t. It was fined £7,500. But this wasn’t a random check: the council had been tipped off by a disgruntled supplier.

A Kensington and Chelsea spokesman couldn’t give me any statistics for recent investigations: he told me that staff did not do “focused work” on restaurant labelling. “It’s at the lower-risk end unless there’s a food-safety issue,” he said. This is a pattern repeated across the country, with councils really only acting if there’s a complaint.

“Everyone knows that Trading Standards are busy with dodgy motors or trouble in Portobello Market,” one Notting Hill restaurateur told me. “Environmental Health have got their hands full, too. A bit of creative menu writing isn’t top of their agendas.”

It doesn’t help that terms like “local” and “sustainable” have no legal definition, so restaurants misuse them. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) did have plans to change the legal status of several terms, but in July the Government announced that it was going to scale down the FSA and its work.
So the burden lies on you, the customer. If you believe that “good” food isn’t just about taste, you’ll need to become your own policeman.

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