The U.K.’s Food Standards Agency has published its latest Annual Report of Food Incidents.
It shows that in 2014, the FSA were notified of, investigated, and managed 1,645 food, feed, and environmental contamination incidents in the U.K. The overall number of incidents was similar to those seen in recent years. However, in most categories, the numbers of incidents differ considerably from year to year.
The four largest contributors to the total number of recorded incidents in 2014 were:
- microbiological contamination (24%)
- veterinary medicines (13%)
- environmental contamination (12%)
- natural chemical contamination (9%)
According to the FSA report, microbiological contamination is the only category where incidents have been consistently increasing over time, from 147 in 2006 to 390 in 2014. In 2014, almost a third of microbiological contamination incidents (32%) resulted from shellfish bed monitoring. High counts of Escherichia coli (E. coli) are used as an indicator of poor hygiene conditions in harvesting areas.
In 2014, 61% of incidents originated within the United Kingdom, including almost all of the environmental contamination incidents. Another 9% of incidents were related to foods from the rest of the EU, while about 21% were due to imported foods from outside. The origin of the remaining 9% could not be identified.
Action taken to protect consumers in relation to food safety included issuing 90 alerts and information notices to local authorities. The FSA also sent 279 notifications to the European Commission, via the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF).
The full report can be accessed here: http://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/fsa-annual-report-incidents-2014.pdf
Release Date: June 4, 2015
Source: Food Standards Agency
