NINE out of 10 food takeaways tested in Derby lied to customers about the contents of their pizzas.

Derby's trading standards team checked 10 takeaways in the city and took a sample of a ham pizza from each.

But when they sent off the food for analysis, it showed that in all but one case the pizzas did not contain any ham but were instead made with much cheaper poultry meat.

The pizzas were also tested to ensure that the cheese was genuine and two out of the 10 samples were found to contain cheese "analogue" – a cheaper non-dairy alternative to cheese.

Councillor Matthew Holmes, cabinet member for planning and environment, said: "Ham is a very popular pizza topping and customers expect to get what they pay for.

"It's misleading to use poultry and describe it as ham and the same goes for cheese. For customers to get a cheaper substitute is unacceptable.

"In Derby, the trading standards and environmental health teams are being proactive to ensure that all takeaways in the city not only have high hygiene standards, but adhere to the law by serving food as described."

The investigation was launched following reports of similar fraud by businesses elsewhere in the country.

Doug Walkman, trading standards team leader, said: "We are very disappointed by these results and we will be contacting all takeaways to ensure these descriptions are corrected as soon as possible."

In another project, the team also tested chip shops in the city to make sure they were selling genuine cod following reports nationally that Vietnamese River Catfish, often referred to as Panga, Basa or River Cobbler, was being sold as cod.

However in Derby, of the 10 samples described and sold as cod, nine proved to be the genuine article and one was found to be haddock.

Mr Walkman said: "The first case of substituting catfish for cod was found in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, where the owner was fined £8,000 plus costs, and in another case in the Cotswolds the owner of the business pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay £1,000 towards costs and fined £1,000."

Mr Holmes added: "Thankfully, in Derby, a vast majority of our fish and chip shops are serving what the customer is paying for. We're glad to be giving local traders the thumbs-up on this one following spot checks."