Consumer watchdog Which? has uncovered fake goats' cheese being sold in British supermarkets in a recent investigation.

The watchdog joined forces with the author of the British Government's independent review into food crime, Professor Chris Elliott to investigate concerns that goat's cheese manufacturer's could be substituting goats' milk for other milks. The concerns stemmed from suspicions that a large amount of goats' cheeses were available despite a shortage in goats' milk.

Out of 76 samples of goats' cheese from supermarkets, delis and markets from eight locations across Britain, the investigation found nine samples contained sheep milk. Which? said three contained more than 80% sheep's cheese, another three contained more than 50% sheep's cheese, and the final three around 5% sheep's cheese.

Commenting on the finding's in a blog for Which?, Professor Elliott said when he looked into why sheep products had been used, "the answer seemed to be that there is plenty of this around and the taste to most of us will be very similar and thus ‘undetectable’ by the consumer".

He said that in four of the cases the goats’ cheese product was heavily contaminated with sheep protein originating from outside the UK."My message is not that all things foreign are bad, but that when supply chains are long and lack local knowledge and long term relationships there must be more opportunities for cheating and thus more checks are needed," Professor Elliott said.