Physical contamination in a kitchen: foreign bodies, examples and what to do

Physical contamination means a foreign body in food: a solid object that is not meant to be eaten. Some come from outside the food, such as glass, metal, plastic, a hair or a plaster. Others belong to the food but should have been taken out: a bone in a fillet sold as boneless, a piece of eggshell, a stone in lentils, a slug in a lettuce.

The harm is mostly physical: cuts to the mouth or throat, broken teeth and choking. Some foreign bodies carry bacteria as well. A mouse dropping, a hair, a used plaster or soil on a stone is a physical hazard and a biological one at the same time.

Law in all four nations Food law defines a hazard as a biological, chemical or physical agent in food.

"Physical hazard" is the term you will see in a HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control point) plan; "foreign body" and "foreign object" are the words most kitchens and councils use. They mean the same thing.

Level 2 and Level 3 food hygiene courses usually teach four types of contamination:

Guidance GOV.UK guidance groups hazards as three, not four: microbiological (or biological), chemical and physical, and counts allergens as a chemical hazard. CookSafe in Scotland also uses three types. Both ways cover the same risks, so use the one your course or your food safety plan uses. For allergens in a kitchen, see our allergen matrix guide.

Two words that are easy to mix up: cross-contamination is how a hazard moves from one thing to another, such as bacteria from raw meat to cooked food on a shared board. The 4 Cs (cleaning, cooking, chilling and avoiding cross-contamination) are a list of habits, not types of contamination.

Law in all four nations The main rules come from Regulations 178/2002 and 852/2004, as they apply in the UK:

• No unsafe food. Food must not be served or sold if it is unsafe, and food that is unfit to eat counts as unsafe. Food contaminated with a foreign body can be unfit. The rule covers restaurants, cafes, canteens and other caterers, and food given away as well as food sold.
• One portion speaks for the batch. If one item in a batch is unsafe, the rest of the batch is presumed unsafe unless a careful check shows it is not. This is why you look at the whole tray, pan or container, not only the plate.
• Deliveries. Do not accept ingredients you know, or could reasonably expect, to be contaminated with foreign matter if your normal sorting or preparation would not make them safe.
• Traceability. You must be able to say which business supplied each food you use. Invoices and delivery notes usually do this.
• Protect the food. Food must be protected from contamination at every stage, and there must be adequate procedures to control pests.
• Equipment. Anything that touches food must be kept in good order, repair and condition.
• Clothing. Food handlers must wear suitable, clean clothing, and protective clothing where needed. The law does not name jewellery, hair nets or plasters: those rules come from guidance (section 13).

Law in all four nations Selling food that is not of the nature, substance or quality the customer asked for, such as a sandwich with a piece of metal in it, is an offence: under section 14 of the Food Safety Act 1990 in England, Wales and Scotland, and Article 13 of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991. Section 21 of the Act and Article 20 of the Order give a defence if you can show you took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence.

Your glass rules, delivery checks, repairs, training and records are how you show those precautions. They help you make the case; they cannot promise it will succeed.

These are the foreign bodies a working kitchen deals with, where they come from, and the control for each. Where the government packs name a control, the notes under the table say so. The rest is kitchen practice.

Guidance in England and Wales The Food Standards Agency's Safer Food, Better Business pack (the FSA pack) calls banning glass from the kitchen a good idea. It also asks for damaged equipment, or equipment with loose parts, to be repaired or replaced, for packaging and string to go in the bin once they are off, for food to be kept covered, and for foil, film and freezer bags to be used once only.

Guidance in Northern Ireland Safe Catering asks kitchens to limit glass, cover light fittings over open food, use plastic or stainless steel in place of glass, take damaged glass out of use, and wash and check vegetables for stones and slugs. It names nuts, bolts, splinters, rust and paint as physical hazards.

Guidance in Scotland CookSafe warns that cracked or broken glassware and utensils can get into food, and asks for broken bulbs, tubes and light fittings to be replaced promptly.

Anything in the table not named in the notes above, such as can openers, wire wool, probe tips, pen lids and false nails, comes from kitchen practice.

None of the three government packs sets out a glass breakage procedure step by step. This one is ours, from kitchen practice. Write your own version into your food safety plan and show it to new starters, so nobody has to work it out while there is glass on the floor.

Our advice Do not set a fixed distance in metres for what to throw away. It depends on what broke, how high it fell and what was open nearby. Glass in an ice well or ice machine cannot be seen: empty it, let the ice melt, clean it and only then refill it. A glass broken in the pot wash sink means draining the sink before anyone reaches in.

Law in all four nations Do not accept ingredients you know, or could reasonably expect, to be contaminated, if your normal preparation would not make them safe.

Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack says that if you find objects in delivered food, reject the delivery if you can, contact the supplier straight away and write the details in your diary. It also says to reject deliveries with gnawed packaging or insects. Guidance in Northern Ireland Safe Catering asks you to check that packaging is not damaged. Guidance in Scotland CookSafe says to reject seriously damaged packaging that could let contamination in.

Our advice At the door and in the stores:

• torn, crushed, wet, holed or gnawed packs get a closer look, and go back if the food inside could be affected;
• unpack in a clear area, away from open food, and take outer boxes off before stock goes into the kitchen or walk-in;
• string, ties, clips and staples go straight in the bin;
• keep food covered or in closed containers, off the floor;
• keep the supplier's label or batch code until the food is used up, so a problem can be traced back.

Our food delivery checks guide covers when to reject a delivery and how to tell the supplier.

A chef finds a blue plaster in the coleslaw, a bolt in the mixer bowl or a shard of plastic in a tray of rice. The food has not gone out yet. This is what to do.

Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack says food with objects such as glass, insects or coloured dressings in it should be thrown away. Guidance in Northern Ireland Safe Catering says the same for glass and insects.

Law in all four nations One unsafe portion means the batch is presumed unsafe unless you can show otherwise, which is why step 4 looks at the whole batch.

Our advice If a part is missing from a machine and you cannot find it, treat everything that went through the machine since it was last seen whole as affected. Never pick the object out and serve the rest.

Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack's page on customer complaints counts finding something in food as a complaint and asks you to treat each one seriously. In kitchen terms: look in your diary and records for the same problem, walk the kitchen, ask the team, and hold back the rest of that batch while you check. If the problem may have started with your supplier, ring them. When you know the cause, change the method or retrain, and note it in the diary.

Our advice At the table:

• if someone is hurt, first aid comes first; ask whether they swallowed anything, and if they may have swallowed something sharp, tell them to get medical help (NHS 111, or accident and emergency if they are in pain or bleeding);
• apologise, take the dish away and do not argue at the table;
• ask whether you may keep the object; if the customer wants to keep it, that is their choice, so photograph it and write a description;
• note the time, the table, the dish and who cooked and served it, and the customer's contact details if they are happy to give them;
• stop serving the same dish from that batch until the kitchen has checked it;
• do not guess at the cause, or offer compensation, before you know what happened.

A customer can report a foreign body to the food team at the council. Councils look into complaints about foreign matter in food and usually contact the business. Many decide by risk, with glass and metal the usual examples of a serious risk, and some do not take up complaints that fall below their criteria. Compensation is a private matter between you and the customer, not something the council arranges. A clear record of what you found and what you did is the best thing to show the council if it calls. If a customer says your food made them ill, see our food poisoning complaint guide.

Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack asks for a short note of the problem and the fix in your diary. Guidance in Northern Ireland Safe Catering asks you to record what you did about it on its record sheets. Guidance in Scotland CookSafe asks you to note problems and what you did in your weekly record.

No law sets a layout for this record. An inspector will still want to see that you dealt with it. Our advice A good record answers:

• when it was found, who found it and who dealt with it;
• the food or dish, the batch, and the supplier and batch code if it was bought in;
• what the object was, with a photo;
• where it was found: in prep, at the pass, or by a customer;
• what happened to the food and the rest of the batch;
• whether the supplier or the council was told, and when;
• the likely cause;
• what was done to stop it happening again;
• who checked that the fix worked, and when.

Three bolts from the same mixer in a month is a pattern, not bad luck. Look back over your records each month for the same problem in the same place. Our near miss guide covers looking for patterns and recording problems caught before they cause harm.

Law in all four nations A food business that believes, or has reason to believe, that food it has supplied is unsafe must take it off the market. If the food has left its control, it must withdraw it and tell the authorities, and if the food may have reached consumers it must tell them and recall it where needed. A business that believes, or has reason to believe, that food it has supplied may harm health must tell the authorities straight away.

In a restaurant most food is eaten minutes after it is cooked, on the premises. These are the times the rule matters most for a kitchen:

• the foreign body came in a bought-in product, so the same product may be on sale elsewhere;
• food has left your premises: takeaway or delivery orders, food you supply to other businesses, meals sent out from a central or care home kitchen;
• a customer has been served food with glass, metal or another sharp object in it, even if nobody was hurt;
• it is glass, metal or another sharp object and other portions, made or served, may be affected;
• someone has been hurt.

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland GOV.UK says to tell the food safety team at your council, which tells the FSA. Contact the FSA's incidents team directly if the incident is serious and the food has reached customers. The FSA pack's page on product recalls lists contamination with pieces of glass or metal as a reason products are recalled, and says that if you notice a problem with a product that may make it unsafe, stop using or selling it and tell your council and the FSA.

Guidance in Scotland Food Standards Scotland's page for businesses says that when you have reason to believe a food incident has happened, you must tell your council, withdraw food that has not reached customers and recall food that has. Its page for the public lists foreign bodies, such as glass, plastic, metal or string, as one kind of food incident.

Law in all four nations The duty to report is the same in all four nations, and the government pages in every nation describe a food incident widely: GOV.UK says a business must report food incidents, including food it has made that is not safe to eat. None of them says whether one object found in the kitchen and thrown away before any food went out, such as one bolt from your own mixer found in one tray, has to be reported. Our advice If you are not sure, ring your council's food team. They would rather hear it from you. Find yours on GOV.UK's find your local food safety team page. Take the FSA incidents team's contact details on the day from the GOV.UK page Report a food safety incident. The way to report changed on 17 November 2025, and some pages, including some on GOV.UK, still show older details.

When a supplier's product is recalled, the FSA and Food Standards Scotland publish an alert. Our food alerts page lists them.

An inspector looks at how food is handled, the state of the building and equipment, and confidence in management. That last part looks at your food safety system and your track record, which can include how you have dealt with complaints. There is no published list of questions about foreign bodies. These are ones we would expect:

• Is there glass in the kitchen, and what happens if something breaks?
• Show me how you check deliveries.
• Where are the pest contractor's reports?
• Is any equipment damaged, or missing a part?
• What plasters do staff use, and where are they kept?
• Show me a complaint and what you did about it.

Things officers often note: flaking paint or plaster above food, rust on shelves, uncovered lights over open food, broken equipment, string and packaging left on prep benches, and food left uncovered. Our EHO inspection guide covers the whole visit.

Every day

• no glass or brittle plastic in prep areas, apart from what your plan allows;
• machines checked whole before and after use: blades, guards, nuts, bolts and whisks;
• food covered when it is stored and when nobody is working on it;
• packaging, string and ties in the bin as soon as they come off;
• staff: hair tied back and covered, jewellery off, no false nails, cuts covered with a bright, waterproof plaster;
• no signs of pests.

Every week

• utensils, scoops, boxes, lids and boards checked for cracks, chips and wear, and damaged ones replaced;
• can opener blade cleaned and checked;
• walls, ceilings, lights and shelving checked for flaking paint, rust and damage;
• broken glass kit in its place: gloves, a dustpan and brush kept only for glass, and bags to wrap the pieces.

This is a list to copy into the checks you already do, not a record sheet. Most of it fits into your opening, closing and weekly checks: see our opening and closing checks guide.

"Blue plasters are the law"

No law names a colour. Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack asks for a "brightly coloured waterproof dressing", because it is easier to see if it falls into food. Guidance in Northern Ireland Safe Catering asks for a brightly coloured waterproof dressing and gives blue as an example. Guidance in Scotland CookSafe asks for a waterproof dressing, ideally one that is easy to see.

Kitchens choose blue because almost no food is blue. Metal-detectable plasters are for factories that run metal detectors; no law asks a restaurant to use them.

"The law bans jewellery and asks for hair nets"

The law asks for suitable, clean clothing. The rules on jewellery, hair and nails come from guidance and your own house rules. Our kitchen hygiene rules guide sets out what each nation's pack says.

"The law says no glass in a kitchen"

No law says that. Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack calls a no-glass rule a good idea. Guidance in Northern Ireland Safe Catering asks kitchens to limit glass.

"The FSA says there are four types of contamination"

Courses teach four. GOV.UK guidance uses three, with allergens counted as chemical (section 2).

Mistakes we see in kitchens

• the object picked out and the rest of the food served;
• a glass or a cup used as a scoop in flour, sugar or rice;
• a missing mixer or slicer part not followed up;
• cling film used twice, or torn off and left on the food;
• the object thrown away before anyone looked at it;
• a customer complaint dealt with at the table and never written down.

In a HACCP plan, foreign bodies are usually controlled by good practice at many steps rather than at one critical control point. See control point or critical control point in our critical control points guide.

Paper works: your nation's pack has a diary, record sheets or a weekly record for this. ChefsRecords is an iPhone app for the daily records. Where it fits when something turns up in the food:

• A Contamination incident. A Manager or Supervisor logs a Food incident and picks the type "Contamination" (foreign body, chemical or raw juices in food), or "Pest Sign" for droppings or gnawed packs, with the area, the severity and a due date. An incident can carry up to 3 types.
• The photo stays with the problem. Photos of the object go on the record itself: 1 on the free plan and in the trial, 3 on Standard, 5 on Pro. Photos need a signal to upload; without one, the record saves and you add the photos later.
• Caught before it went out. A foreign body found before the food left the kitchen can be logged as a near miss.
• Closed when someone has checked the fix. Under Corrective action and resolution, write the Action Taken and name the person who checked the fix worked under Verified By, then tap "Verify and close".
• Repeats show up. The app flags a repeat when the same problem is logged in the same area within 30 days, so the second bolt from the same mixer does not look like a one-off.
• Deliveries. A dry goods delivery asks one question: packaging undamaged, in date, no signs of pests? A delivery that fails asks "What was done about it?". A Manager or Supervisor can log a Delivery incident, type "Damaged Goods" (packaging broken, crushed or contaminated), against the supplier, with photos.
• Checks. The starter checklists include "Staff fit for work, in clean workwear, cuts covered" and "No signs of pests" at opening, "Walls, floors and equipment checked for damage; repairs reported" in the Weekly Checks, and "Any food complaints looked into" in the Monthly Review. You can add your own line, such as a glass check.
• For the inspector. Food safety incidents go into the Inspection Pack.

1

Pick the type. "Contamination" covers a foreign body in food; "Pest Sign" covers droppings and gnawed packs.

2

Close it when it is fixed. What was done, who checked it worked, then verify and close.

What it does not do today: it has no separate customer complaint form and no glass breakage log, and it does not decide whether to throw food away or tell your supplier or the council. Those decisions stay with you; the app keeps the record of them. A customer complaint can be logged as a Food incident, type "Contamination", with the details in the description.

Which plan. Food incidents are on every plan. Delivery incidents need Standard or Pro after the 14-day trial. Checklists and the Inspection Pack come with Standard and Pro, and are open in the trial.

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Related guides

The kitchen hygiene rules guide, the pest control guide, the food delivery checks guide, the kitchen cleaning schedule guide, the cross-contamination guide, the allergen matrix guide, the critical control points guide, the near miss guide and the EHO inspection guide.