The latest results from the Agency’s Biannual Public Attitudes Tracker for May 2013 have been published.
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As in previous waves of the tracker, the top two food safety issues of concern for respondents were food hygiene when eating out (40%) and food poisoning such as salmonella and E.coli (30%). When asked about wider food issues, respondents were most concerned about food prices (59%); the amount of salt in food (47%) and food waste (44%).
Food safety in the UK
Concern about food safety in UK restaurants, pubs, cafes and takeaways (52%) has remained largely unchanged across the time series. However, concern about food safety in UK shops and supermarkets (52%) increased in this wave, compared to all previous waves (44-46%, November 2010 to November 2012).
Awareness of the FSA
About four-fifths (82%) of respondents said they were aware of the Food Standards Agency in this wave of the tracker. Of these, 56% said they trusted the FSA to do its job. This is a decrease from previous waves which showed 62-66% trust. Only 12% said they distrusted the FSA to do its job. This compares to 5-7% in previous waves.
Hygiene standards
More than four-fifths of respondents (82%) said they were aware of the hygiene standards in places they eat out at or buy food from. In this wave, 40% of these respondents reported hygiene certificates and 25% reported hygiene stickers, as ways of knowing about hygiene standards.
Both these figures have been steadily increasing since wave 1 (November 2010). As in previous waves, the main ways respondents reported being aware of hygiene standards were the general appearance of premises (60%) and the appearance of staff (48%).
Food Hygiene Rating and Information Schemes
Awareness of the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) has continued to increase in this wave. A third (34%) of respondents in England, Wales and Northern Ireland reported being aware of the FHRS (21-30%, November 2011 to November 2012) and 57% said they had seen the FHRS certificate and/or sticker before (50%, November 2012).
Awareness of Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS) was more mixed. The proportion of respondents in Scotland who reported being aware of the FHIS (11%) was unchanged compared to the previous waves. However, there was an increase in the percentage who said they had seen the FHIS certificate and/or sticker before (45% compared to 32% in November 2012).
Further Information:
- Biannual public attitudes tracker survey is available here.
- Fieldwork for this wave took place in May 2013 and a representative sample of 2,581 adults in the UK was interviewed via the TNS consumer face-to-face omnibus survey. This is the sixth wave of the biannual tracker which started in November 2010.
