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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) launched their Annual Report on Food Standards on Wednesday (8 November) at an event in Parliament.

This is their annual ‘Our Food’ report, which reviews food standards across the UK for 2022. This is the second report since the UK left the EU and is an independent and evidence-based annual assessment of food standards across all four nations. The report can be seen here.

Overall, food standards remained stable in 2022, despite pressures including inflation, labour shortages and the war in Ukraine. However, the report identifies shortages in key occupations needed to keep food safe, such as vets and food inspectors. Without enough people with the right skills to deliver essential food controls, it will be more difficult to identify, monitor and respond to risks to food safety, leaving consumers and businesses vulnerable.

The FSA and FSS are calling on government, local authorities, professional bodies and industry to:

  • Address the decline in local authority Trading Standards officers, Environmental Health and Food Safety officers to ensure food standards are maintained;
  • Tackle the shortage of Official Veterinarians to protect animal health and welfare and trade and assure food hygiene standards;
  • Share more and better-quality information across the food industry to help stop criminal gangs and tackle food crime that costs the UK up to £2 billion per year; and
  • Introduce import controls on food imported from the EU to help reduce the risk of unsafe food entering the UK from the EU.

We recently discussed priorities with Emily Miles in our CEO call, and a summary can be seen here. We look forward to discussing more with members in our upcoming working groups.