Croydon diners can now text the council's food safety team from the restaurant table if they find a fly in their soup.

The See and Tell service, launched this month, enables people to text Croydon Council's food safety team with concerns about food safety or labelling issues - in restaurants, shops or takeaways.

There are 2,600 food businesses in Croydon, from takeaways to supermarkets.

And Brian Griffiths, manager of the council's food safety team, says tough action will be taken against any food business which falls short of the mark.

He said: “There are various levels of action we can take, but in the worst case scenario we can go in and close a place down on the spot.

“We rely heavily on customers tipping us off and this new text service will make it all the easier.

“If you find a hair in your soup you can literally text us from the restaurant table and we'll come and investigating.”

Customers can report concerns about: poor hygiene standards in food businesses, unfit food being sold or displayed, food labelling problems, out of date food, rubbish accumulation outside food businesses, pest control and allegations of food poisoning.

Mr Griffiths says he has seen some nasty sites in his time as a food safety officer.

He said: “Sometimes I've opened bins at the back of restaurants and seen the meat moving because there were so many maggots on it.

“And at the moment we're dealing with a mice infestation at a high street store which sells food.

“It is really important we get to hear from residents about these sorts of things so we can go in and take the appropriate action.”

Mr Griffiths also advised people to go to their GP if they think they have got food poisoning and give a poo sample.

He added: “The proof is in the poop and if people give a sample it can be used as evidence, which helps us wrap things up much easier if we get an allegation of food poisoning.”

Customers should text FOOD to 60660 with a description of the problem.

People will get an automatic text message acknowledgement and an officer from the team will contact them in one working day to discuss the concerns further and take the necessary action.

Messages should cost the user's normal network rate.