The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published the tenth report on food sampling activity in Northern Ireland that covers the targeted, risk-based, sampling and testing of food carried out by local councils across the food supply and retail chain.
The report reveals that a high percentage of the wide range of foodstuffs sampled were found to comply with the food safety and standards legislation. The main issues continue to be in relation to incorrect labelling and description of food.
Key findings of the report were:
- In total, 63% of microbiological samples and 43% of chemical samples were satisfactory
- Only a small number of the samples, which did not meet microbiological standards, were found to contain pathogens that could present a risk to health
- The majority of samples that failed chemical analysis were due to labelling issues rather than the presence of harmful substances