Recently biannual survey, ‘Food and You 2’ findings were published by Food Standard Agency (FSA). This survey was officially launched in 2020. It is related to food safety and issues which faced by people in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This survey assesses consumer knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding food safety. The survey was conducted using Push-to-web methodology. Fieldwork was carried out by Ipsos between April 26 and July 24, 2022. The survey was completed by 6,770 adults from 4,727 households.

Main Topics covered under this survey include:

• Food shopping and labelling
• Food you can trust
• Concerns about food
• Food security
• Online platforms
• Eating at home
• Food related behavior and eating habits.

In this survey a questionnaire was made with the questions like

• What is the frequency of grocery shopping?
• Do you check labels/allergy alerts/best before dates before buying?
• Do you prefer to get your food online or you visit supermarket?
• Do you follow personal hygiene while eating and cooking?
• How you store your food?
• Do you have any concerns about the food you ate? And the list goes on..

What survey says?

Majority of people prefer to get their food online. When it comes to eating at home, 49% people wash their hand before eating. And 65% of people check best before/ use by dates before cooking. In England, 80% of respondents indicated high or marginal food security, compared to 78% in Northern Ireland and 74% in Wales. 20%, 22% and 26% of respondents in England, Northern Ireland and Wales respectively reported poor food security. Food Insecurity means the lack of reliable access to sufficient food.

91% of people were confident that the food they purchased was safe to consume. Approximately 74% of respondents expressed trust in the food supply chain. 86% of those surveyed believed that the data on food labels is accurate. 80% of those surveyed expressed no worries about the food they consume. 83% of respondents said they are confident in their ability when it comes to buy food for the person who has a food allergy and the information provided on the label is sufficient.

The majority of respondents had made dietary changes in the previous year. The changes include how to manage rising food cost, where to eat and what to avoid. The primary reasons for changes in eating habits were 69% financial, 47% health and 41% COVID-19. According to the results of this survey, the top three food-related concerns among consumers are food waste, the amount of sugar in food, and animal welfare, with more than half of respondents reporting concern about each of these issues.

Reference: