The Food Standards Agency has released official statistics on food law enforcement by local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for the year 2017/18.
The new data show:
- Food hygiene compliance in food establishments has remained stable at 90% since 2016/17
- The percentage of due food hygiene interventions achieved, which covers food safety, increased to 87% compared with 85% in 2016/17 and food standards interventions, which covers areas such as authenticity and food fraud, increased to 42% compared with 40%
- The percentage of initial interventions carried out at food establishments not yet rated, increased to 61% from 60% for food standards but decreased to 88.5% compared with 90% in 2016/17 for food hygiene
- A continuing fall in occupied staffing levels in professional posts which reduced by 1% in 2017/18 compared with the previous year
- A continuing reduction in sampling activity, with 45,210 official food samples reported in 2017/18, a decrease of 10%