A fresh alert has been issued to North Tyneside residents about the risks of buying from door-to-door fish salesmen.
The warning is from Trading Standards and Environmental Health services, which are provided for North Tyneside Council by its partner Capita.
It follows a recent incident where an elderly woman from Wideopen was sold more fish than she needed and paid over the odds for it.
Some of the fish was of a different type to what she thought she had purchased and, because all labelling had been removed, its freshness was unknown.
Senior Trading Standards Officer David Hedley said: “We would advise residents never to deal with cold-callers on their doorstep.
“These particular people are high pressure salesman who try to sell far more fish to people than they need at inflated prices. This recent incident was in the Wideopen area but we know they operate across the north east and beyond.”
The incident happened on Tuesday 17 April, when two men in a blue van called at the woman's home offering to sell fresh fish.
Although the householder was willing to buy two or three packets, due to high pressure sales tactics she ultimately purchased 14 packets for £180 – around double the price that the fish were worth.
And while she believed she was buying cod, lemon sole, sea bass and halibut, later testing by Environmental Health revealed that pangasius was among the fish purchased.
In contravention of Food Information and Fish Labelling Regulations, there were no labels, which should have provided information such as fish type and weight, durability date and trader details.
Senior Environmental Health Officer Colin Smith said: “The woman became suspicious when she later opened one of the fish packets and was concerned about the strong smell.
“Her doubts were confirmed when she was unable to find any labels to indicate when the fish should be used by.
“As well as the other concerns we have about this case, the van that it was transported in may not have been refrigerated, which presents a significant risk to health.”
Consumers are warned not to deal with any uninvited salespeople. Anyone with concerns about doorstep callers in their area should call the Consumer Helpline on 03454 04 05 06 or Northumbria Police on 101.