COMPLAINTS ABOUT food quality, poor hygiene and suspected food poisoning made up the bulk of consumer calls to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) advice line last year.
A breakdown of the queries has been published by the authority. It shows that over the year there were 7,747 queries, an average of 638 calls a month, an increase on the previous year.
Some 30 per cent of the calls came from consumers, said the FSAI report, while the majority of calls came from the food industry.
"Consumers mostly called to complain about food and food businesses, either in relation to poor hygiene standards, food unfit for human consumption or suspected food poisoning.
"Consumers also complained about misleading labelling and in general are more aware of what should and should not appear on a label," said the report.
"These complaints are referred to environmental health officers, who investigate them on behalf of the FSAI."
It said consumer queries on labelling of foods was the third most popular category of request on the advice line.
These were significant because of the requirement to list all ingredients on a label, including 12 recognised allergens.
It said the calls from the food industry - 34 per cent of the total queries - sought information mainly on legislation, labelling, standards and HACCP, the safety standard required to produce food.
The FSAI website was also visited by nearly 114,000 people last year.