Our Food 2024

This year marks 25 years since the Food Standards Agency (FSA) was established and a decade since the creation of Food Standards Scotland (FSS). These milestones are a chance to reflect on why both organisations were set up and the key roles we continue to play today.

Safe food is a primary determinant of human health. Our job is to protect public health and uphold consumer interests in relation to food, working to ensure the food system provides safe and healthy food.

However, this report is not about the FSA or FSS. Rather it is about the wider food system we are part of — looking at how well it is working, where the pressures are, and thinking about what risks may lie ahead. It forms part of our commitment to be transparent about the state of food standards in the UK.

Over the past 25 years, events such as the BSE crisis and the horsemeat incident have shown the importance of strong, independent regulation. The food system, including the businesses that operate within it, continues to face risks and pressures, and our role is to verify that it keeps delivering for consumers safely while also helping food businesses to flourish.

We are greatly encouraged by the wider policy recognition of governments across the UK of the importance of food in addressing some of the societal challenges of our age, notably obesity, diet-related disease and climate change. We are pleased to be playing our part in the food and obesity strategies and policies across the four nations that will seek to improve health by reducing harms from unhealthy and/or unsafe food.

This report can help inform these next steps. By being honest about the current state of the system, we can help secure the improvements needed to protect public health and maintain people’s trust in the food they eat.

Download Our Food 2024

You can read the full report here: