Food suppliers across Scotland have failed more than 9,000 food standards tests over the last five years, a figure that includes 3,671 failures in the Aberdeen City Council area.
Aberdeen recorded the most standards failures of Scottish councils which were able to provide the information when asked to do so by the Lib Dems.
The second highest number of failures was recorded in Glasgow (1,884), but far fewer tests were carried out in Scotland’s largest city.
In total, 9,148 test failures were recorded since 2013 in the 24 council areas that were able to give detailed information on food standards.
The Lib Dems used Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation to ask all 32 of Scotland’s local authorities for the number of tests failed over the period.
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Those that did not provide the information included Edinburgh City and Highland Council, which provided the number of tests carried out but not the number of failures.
Almost 19,000 tests were carried out in Aberdeen, a number far in excess of the 7,000 or so carried out in Glasgow.
Lib Dem MSP Mike Rumbles said local authorities were doing “excellent work” to keep the public safe, but were suffering from a 8% drop in the money allocated to them from the Scottish Government.
Dr Jacqui McElhiney of Food Standards Scotland said: “Sampling programmes carried out by local authority enforcement officers and Public Analyst laboratories play a key role in protecting public health by verifying the safety and standards of foods placed on the market.”
Aberdeen City Council declined to comment.