The Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade has recently published a useful guide: ‘Growing trade: Five key strategies for boosting your food and drink exports in 2025’.
The guide covers:
It can be downloaded for free here
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) have recently published the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) results on the diet, nutrient intake and nutritional status of adults and children in the UK for 2019 to 2023.
This survey is designed to assess the diet, nutrient intake and nutritional status of the general UK population. Participants aged 18 months and over living in private households are selected each year from all 4 UK countries. The sample is designed to be nationally representative. The survey data is used by UK governments to monitor progress towards achieving diet and nutrition objectives and to develop food and nutrition policies.
Data collection was carried out between October 2019 and July 2023 but was suspended between March and October 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report includes:
Household food security (that is access to sufficient safe and nutritious food) was collected in 2022 to 2023 only. No analysis of food consumption or nutrient intake by household food security was carried out for this report due to small numbers.
You can access the NDNS report here
The European Commission has recently published the report on agri-food fraud suspicions for May 2025.
These monthly reports include ‘non-compliances with fraud suspicions’ of cross-border nature identified and shared between members of the Alert and Cooperation Network (ACN) and retrieved from its three components: the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed network (RASFF), the Administrative Assistance and Cooperation network (AAC) and the Agri-Food Fraud Network (FFN).
Non-compliances with fraud suspicions affecting one single Member State are not shared in the ACN and therefore not reported within these monthly reports.
The monthly reports cover food, feedstuff, materials and articles intended to come into contact directly or indirectly with food, animal welfare issues for farmed animals, plant protection products, veterinary medicinal products and other inputs that may end in the form of residues and contaminants in food and feed.
The monthly reports do not reconcile data and suspicions related to the following subjects:
The report can be accessed here
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) recently published their ‘Our Food’ report, which reviews food safety and standards across the UK for 2024.
This is the fourth 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 reveals that overall, food safety and authenticity standards were stable in 2024, but several aspects of the food system remain under considerable pressure.
Local authorities still do not have enough resources to address the substantial backlog of inspections, nor deal with the growing number of new food businesses that should be inspected.
There has been progress in implementing documentary and physical checks at our borders, however more comprehensive and accurate data would allow consumers to be better protected.
It is also still the case that too many households are struggling to afford food, and that more action is required to improve the healthiness of the food we eat.
The decline in local authority food sampling rates which takes them below pre-pandemic levels is also a concern as surveillance sampling shows that labelling issues are responsible for most non-compliances.
As in previous years, there are still examples of products containing allergens that are not labelled correctly.
Recruitment of Official Veterinarians (OVs) has improved but remains challenging and we need a more sustainable recruitment pipeline to ensure high standards are maintained in the meat industry.
The FSA and FSS are now calling on government, industry, and regulators to work together to respond to these risks in our food system, to uphold high food standards, and to achieve a food system that works for everyone.
Access the full report here
The agenda and papers for the FSA Board meeting, which was held in Birmingham on 18th June 2025, have now been published. The agenda covered the following subjects:
The agenda and papers can be accessed here
A video recording of the meeting can also be found here
The FSA Board holds its meetings in public and publishes meeting agendas, papers and decisions. You can view meetings in person or online to see the Board’s discussions about their policies.
The next FSA Board Meeting is due to take place on 17th September 2025 in Belfast. Registration usually opens around a month before the meeting and at that point you will be able to register here.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has recently published the summary of responses and the government response to the consultation on fairer food labelling.
This consultation was a joint UK-wide consultation undertaken by Defra on behalf of the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. It ran for 8 weeks from 12th March to 7th May 2024 and sought views on proposals for clearer food labelling through improved method of production and country of origin labelling.
A total of 31,011 responses were received from individuals as well as a range of organisations, including public bodies, industry, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and academic institutions.
The consultation revealed that the majority of respondents support changing mandatory country of origin labelling rules so that they apply to the meat used in minimally processed meat products. It also showed that there was strong support for mandatory method of production labelling reform.
In response, Defra stated that they “will consider all views as we go forwards and will continue to work with relevant stakeholders including farming and food industry stakeholders, vets, scientists and NGOs as part of this continuing policy development”.
“Recognising the strong support from the public and other stakeholders for clearer food information on welfare standards, we will consider the potential role of method of production labelling reform as part of the UK Government’s development of an overarching approach to animal welfare and the wider food strategy. We will continue to work with the Devolved Governments on this”.
Read more here.
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) has issued a warning about snacks and sweets being sold on TikTok without allergen information being provided.
The warning follows a BBC investigation which found that listings on TikTok show people selling snacks and sweets without highlighting they contain one of 14 main allergens that UK businesses are legally required to declare.
When the BBC brought these listings to TikTok’s attention, it deleted them, however it is currently still possible to sell food on TikTok Shop without providing any ingredient or allergy information.
A major recent study by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) revealed that approximately 6% of the UK adult population, or around 2.4 million people, live with a clinically confirmed food allergy. Food allergies are a cause of particular concern in young children, where the incidence of food allergy (which is often life threatening) is estimated to be 5-8% in toddlers.
Around 10 people die from allergic reactions to food every year in the UK with hospital admissions for allergic reactions going up by 161.3% over the last 20 years.
CIEH state that they have seen many high-profile cases of where wrong food allergen labelling or practice in food businesses has led to loss of life, showing just how critical it is that this information is provided and is accurate.
The warning from CIEH echoes calls from charities such as Anaphylaxis UK for allergy sufferers to be vigilant when buying food online – if the product they are buying does not contain ingredient and allergen information, do not buy it.
In light of the fact that the growth of food being purchased online and via social media is bound to increase, CIEH is calling on the Government to future-proof the UK’s food safety and integrity framework, ensuring it remains robust and adaptable.
They have called for the introduction of a ‘permit to trade’ for all registered food businesses to ensure a food business cannot open unless appropriate information has been provided and the necessary food safety measures and controls are in place.
On 26 August 2022, the competent German authority submitted a dossier to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in favour of the identification of melamine as substance of very high concern, namely a chemical substance with probable serious effects on human health and the environment under the REACH Regulation.
After receiving the comments of the interested parties and following the unanimous vote of the Member State Committee (MSC), ECHA adopted, on 16 December 2022, a decision identifying melamine as substances of very high concern on the ground that it had probable serious effects on human health and the environment.
A number of undertakings that produce or use melamine, established in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and in the United States – including LAT Nitrogen Piesteritz GmbH, Cornerstone Chemical Co. and Fritz Egger GmbH & Co. OG – brought an action before the General Court of the European Union seeking the annulment of that decision.
In its two judgments, the General Court has now rejected all of their arguments and therefore has dismissed their actions.
More information can be found in a recent press release from the EU Court of Justice
