THE issue of food safety and budget cuts was raised at Tuesday’s Wiltshire Council meeting.

Councillor Chris Caswill asked the meeting what the position on funding for testing was in Wiltshire, given the high number of samples in another authority that had turned out to be either not what they were advertised as, or mislabelled.

In response, Cllr Keith Humphries, the Cabinet member with responsibility for public health, said the budget for food standards testing would remain at £26,000 in 2014/15. However in 2012/13, the budget had been about £30,000.

Cllr Humphries said 34 per cent of the 225 food samples taken by Wiltshire Council officers in 2013/14 were reported as unsatisfactory.

And so far this year the food and safety team had taken 93 food samples and received 29 unsatisfactory results, with more test results to be received.