The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) have launched a major review of the UK system.

The inaugural annual report Our Food: An annual review of food standards across the UK comes after the food system has faced two-years of major upheaval following the UK’s departure from the EU, the significant effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and more recently the disruption caused by the war in Ukraine.

The report concludes that food standards in the UK have largely been maintained, despite the significant pressures. However, while there has been no evidence of a drop in standards, the report warns of challenges ahead.

Two of the main concerns to come from the report is the fall in the number of inspections of food businesses as a consequence of the resourcing pressures faced by local authorities. Also, the delay in establishing full UK import controls for high-risk food and feed from the EU, has reduced the ability to prevent the entry of unsafe food into the UK market.

There are a growing number of concerns that the government’s seasonal worker visa is becoming increasingly vulnerable to abuse by criminals, which leads to labour exploitation across the supply chain.

“There is infiltration into recruitment at various levels by third parties who are not involved [in the process] at all,” said David Camp, CEO of the Association of Labour Providers. “They have no connection to any recruiter, but they advertise as if they do, and they take money from individuals.”

Camp added that these third parties typically offered training courses and help with job application admin for a fee. However, such services were “complete shams where they don’t do anything, they just take the money”, he claimed.

Kate Roberts, head of policy at research organisation Focus on Labour Exploitation, said “We had been concerned there are risks of exploitation in the scheme generally but also, with the expansion of the scheme, [there had been] an increase in people being charged illegal recruitment fees”

The UK has previously recruited the majority of seasonal labour workers from Ukraine, but due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, recruitment companies gave had to rapidly expand into new markets in Asia.

FSA chair, Professor Susan Jebb, said: “This first joint report reflects on a period during which there has been significant concern about the impact of world events on food standards and safety.

It is encouraging for UK consumers and our international trading partners that this report provides reassurance that the high food standards we enjoy in the UK have been upheld during a really tough period for the food system. However, the effects of recent momentous events are still being felt and will continue to have an impact on our food systems for many years to come”.