From Janet Kipling, Exeter 383654, November 21, 2007

A mouse head in a pint of milk, snails in a can of peas and weevils in cereal are amongst some of the gruesome finds dealt with by two Devon County Council Trading Standards officers who have just marked their 40^th years in the job.

Mike Heard, from Halberton near Tiverton, and Chris Webb started working for the Council in 1967.

Mike worked in the East Devon area until 1972, then moved to the Totnes office covering the South Hams mainly dealing with weights and measures issues on goods ranging from spices to coal. He was appointed Weights and Measures Inspector at Torbay in 1974.

He remembers decimalisation in 1972 when "everything went up by a penny overnight", and the Trades Description Act 1968 which prompted a number of investigations for cars being sold by dishonest dealers who had wound their odometers back. Numerous hotels were also investigated for mis-describing their facilities.

In 1978 he returned to Exeter and dealt mainly with complaints about food, many featuring foreign bodies including a mouse head in milk, weevils in cereals, snails in canned peas and allegations of cats being used in Chinese food. He also spent time weighing lorries at Kennford and Junction 27 of the M5, enforcing the Road Traffic Act re overloaded lorries.

"Amongst the overweight lorries I discovered was a vehicle carrying the royal polo ponies which had to be unloaded at Kennford," said Mike.

Mike now works at Barnstaple as a Team leader covering all aspects of Trading Standards work, and spends his spare time playing rugby and cricket.

Working for Devon County Council was in Chris Webb's blood - his father ran the old Document Reproduction Centre.

He qualified as a Trading Standards Officer in 1974 and went to work for Avon County Council in Bath. Three years later he transferred to Devon working firstly in Barnstaple then Torquay and finally Exeter.

He now specialises in metrology and the majority of his work is verifying all the petrol pumps, bulk flowmeters and weighbridges throughout Devon.

Chris said: "My most memorable prosecution concerned the first garage to go metric in Devon which put up a sign outside with a price for four litres of petrol, with the words 'four litres of petrol' in very tiny writing at the top. We received dozens of complaints that people had been misled. They were found guilty and fined £4500.

"The most striking changes have been computers. When I started there were none, and when they first came in nearly a whole floor was used to accommodate them. The Trade Descriptions Act came out in 1968 and we were then chasing around prosecuting unscrupulous car traders for altering car speedometers. Prior to then we enforced a handful of legislations, primarily the Weights and Measures Act. Now we enforce around a hundred primary pieces of legislation, from the Food Safety Act to the Consumer Protection Act, and over a thousand associated regulations and orders."

Outside work, Chris, who lives in Topsham, enjoys sailing a 50 year old Dragon Keelboat and a Hornet 16' Trapeze boat, along with water and snow skiing.

Devon County Council's Trading Standards department aims to protect consumers and maintain a fair trading environment in which local businesses can thrive.

Executive Member for Communities, Cllr Brian Berman, said: "We are lucky at Devon County Council to enjoy the hard work and loyalty of employees such as Mike and Chris, who bring so much to the valuable work we do. Congratulations to both of them on their long service."

Head of Devon County Council Trading Standards, Paul Thomas said: "Mike and Chris have been a credit to both their profession and to the local authority. The experience and skills gained over such long service can never be replaced and we are fortunate that they both continue to serve the people in Devon in a valuable capacity. On a personal note, you could not wish for two better colleagues and I know that both are extremely well liked by all within the Trading Standards Service."