Our Food – FSA & FSS Annual Review

Our Food 2024: Key takeaways from the annual review by the Food Standards Agency and Foods Standards Scotland

Published in June 2025, this review of food standards by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) provides valuable insights into consumer concerns, food safety performance and the regulatory landscape across the UK.

Some key findings

• Food prices again topped the list of consumer concerns across the UK. Consumers also expressed worries about food waste, food quality and the amount of sugar in foods.
• Food hygiene standards have remained stable, but there is a considerable backlog of overdue inspections by local authorities.
• Local authority food standards and hygiene resources remain under pressure. While staffing levels in some nations rose during 2023/24, there has been a longer-term decline in occupied food hygiene (-15.4%) and food standards (-43.8%) posts.
• In 2024, 1,903 food and feed safety incidents were reported to the FSA and FSS, a decrease of approximately 2% compared with the previous year.

Allergen incidents

Cereal and bakery products accounted for 7% of all reported food incidents in 2024, with the most common issues being undeclared allergens, physical contaminants and pesticide residues.

Between 2023 and 2024, the number of notified incidents involving allergens in the UK decreased by 11% but stayed within historic range since 2020. However, allergens were the second highest category of incidents recorded by FSS, with numbers rising from 18 to 30 when compared with 2023.

A major contamination incident involving peanuts in mustard powder triggered a wave of allergy alerts and reinforced the need for vigilance.

Allergy alerts on the rise

In 2024, allergy alerts issued by the FSA and FSS rose by 58% compared with the previous year. One-third of these were linked to the major peanut-in-mustard contamination incident.

Milk remained one of the most frequently undeclared allergens on food labels, making it the second most common reason for an allergy alert to be issued in 2024, despite a decrease compared with 2023.

The number of allergy alerts involving other allergens remained broadly stable compared with 2023. However, there was a slight increase in alerts involving sulphur dioxide and soya, while alerts related to eggs decreased

The FSA targeted survey 2024/25

Between July and September 2024, the FSA collected 445 samples across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to test for allergens, contaminants, authenticity, composition, labelling accuracy, and compliance with food information standards. A higher proportion of samples (66%) were collected from small food businesses as previous results indicated higher failure rates for small retailers compared with larger supermarket chains.

Results from the FSA targeted food product survey

Overall compliance rate: 77% (344 out of 445 samples), supermarkets and large food businesses: 86% compliant, small food businesses: 73% compliance – reflecting continued challenges in this sector.

Product-Specific Findings
 – Bread products: Just 26% (9 of 35 samples) were compliant; the lowest of all categories. Issues included undeclared milk, incorrect allergen declarations and poor labelling.
 – Vegan and free-from products tested for the presence of allergens and compliance with labelling requirements had a compliance rate of 87% and 85%, respectively. One sample contained undeclared milk, and four had labelling issues. Allergens were not detected in any of the 60 samples of free from products tested

Results from FSS’s compositional and chemical contaminants sampling programme

The overall compliance rate for the programme was 86% (557/649 samples) with nearly three-quarters (74%) of the 92 non-compliances being due to the presence of allergens.

Key Concerns
 – Non-dairy lattes: 85% of samples (58 of 68) contained milk protein above safe thresholds (0.2mg/portion). Two samples exceeded 10mg/portion, posing a high risk to those with milk allergies. The presence of milk protein in these drinks indicates that cross-contact can occur during the preparation of these drinks and may pose a serious risk for people with a milk allergy. FSS is working on an incident prevention strategy to address allergen issues detected in cafes and other catering establishments.
 – Egg-free takeaway meals: 14% (10 of 70 samples) contained egg protein above acceptable levels, with one sample exceeding 10mg/portion. These results are possibly due to cross-contact during food preparation and may pose a risk to individuals with egg allergy.

FSS is developing an incident prevention strategy to mitigate these risks, particularly in cafes and catering establishments.

For full details and deeper insights, read the complete Our Food 2024 report

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