Consumer confidence in food safety hits a high

FSA report shows the most common changes to eating habits were consuming less processed food and more fruit and/or vegetables, and minimising food waste

The Food Standard Agency’s (FSA) latest biannual ‘official statistic’ survey, Food and You 2, has revealed that 94% of respondents are confident that the food they buy is safe to eat, the highest level of public confidence in food safety recorded since the project began in 2020. 

The Wave 10 survey, conducted between October 2024 and February 2025, measures consumers’ self-reported knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to food safety and other food issues amongst adults in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. 

In the previous three surveys, consumer confidence averaged 88-90%. Public confidence has also grown in other key areas, with 86% of respondents stating that they were confident that the information on food labels is accurate, up from 81-83% in the previous three surveys.   

Consumer confidence in the food supply chain has also risen to 77% of respondents in the latest survey, up from between 68-72% in the previous three surveys. The FSA says that these findings show that the public has strong confidence in food safety.

Katie Pettifer, Chief Executive of the FSA, said, “Our job is to protect people by making sure food is safe and what it says it is, and this trust reflects the hard work across the food system. We’ll keep working closely with industry, local authorities, and wider government to maintain and strengthen this trust.”

The report found that 83% of respondents were confident that the FSA can be relied upon to protect the public from food-related risks, up from 78-79% in the previous three surveys. 81% were confident that the FSA takes appropriate action if a risk is identified, and 77% were confident that the FSA is committed to communicating openly with the public about food-related risks.  

Other notable findings in the report include:  

• The most common changes to eating habits reported by respondents were that they had eaten less processed food (47%), started eating more fruit and/or vegetables (35%), and started minimising food waste (35%). 
• 70% of respondents reported that they always wash their hands before preparing or cooking food, and 92% reported that they always wash their hands immediately after handling raw meat, poultry, or fish. 
• 65% of respondents reported that they always check use-by dates before they cook or prepare food, and 60% of respondents correctly reported that their fridge temperature should be between 0-5 degrees Celsius. 
• Across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, 80% of respondents were classified as food secure and 20% of respondents were classified as food insecure. Meanwhile, 3% of respondents reported that they had used a food bank or other emergency food provider in the last 12 months. 

“…we are thinking about taste, nutrition and value, not whether the food might make us ill… It reflects the trust people have in UK food producers and retailers...”

Matthew Gilmore, Group Leader in the Microbes and Food Safety research programme at the Quadram Institute Bioscience, said the results were both encouraging and reassuring. “When most of us choose what to buy or cook, we are thinking about taste, nutrition and value, not whether the food might make us ill. That in itself tells a good story. It reflects the trust people have in UK food producers and retailers, and that trust is well deserved.”

Gilmore noted that food safety does not appear to be top of mind, with consumer concerns related to wider interests such as food prices (69%), production methods (35%), and nutrition (26%). “That fits with the reality most of us experience: serious foodborne illness in the UK is relatively rare.”

He added, “In many ways, that is a sign of a system working well. When the public does not need to think about food safety, it usually means the right protections are in place behind the scenes.”