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Summary of responses: consultation on market authorisation of one traditional food notification January 2026
Summary of stakeholder responses to the consultation about one traditional food from a third country. The consultation ran from 28 January to 25 February 2026.
The notification on which the consultation sought views is listed below:
- new authorisation of Bambara groundnut (seeds and seed flour of Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.)
To ensure representation across a broad spectrum of opinion, stakeholders with a range of interests in regulated products received additional targeted communications about the public consultation.
Stakeholders were encouraged to consider the proposed terms of authorisation and any labelling requirements. In addition, stakeholders were invited to use this opportunity to comment or highlight any additional factors that should be brought to the attention of ministers before the notification was authorised.
The consultation reach was comprehensive, with automatic notifications sent to 3,050 UK-wide subscribers of Food Standards Agency (FSA) alerts at the time of launch. This included FSA subscribers registered specifically to receive updates about national content – 1,050 subscribers to England, 546 subscribers to Northern Ireland and 601 subscribers to Wales.
The FSA has a reach of 150,949 LinkedIn followers (as of 25 February 2026) and on LinkedIn the consultation had 8,683 impressions (the number of times a post appears in a user's feed) and 379 engagements. The FSA consultation page received 571 page views and 450 visitors from 28 January to 25 February 2026.
Food Standards Scotland (FSS) also launched a consultation on market authorisation of Bambara groundnuts, which ran at the same time.
The FSA is grateful to those who engaged and responded. The response received is set out below.
Characteristics of respondents
We received one consultation response from an industry representative, who reported their location as Singapore.
Two responses were received by FSS in their consultation.
Summary of substantive comments
The response to the consultation has been analysed and the main theme identified. The FSA’s response to the comment made is included below.
Support for authorisation
Summary of stakeholders’ comments
One respondent was supportive of the authorisation and its proposed conditions of use with no further feedback to recommend.
Food Standards Agency response
We note your comments and thank you for your response.
Next steps
The authorisation process requires ministers in England, Wales and Scotland to authorise the new authorisation of one traditional food from a third country in accordance with the proposed conditions of use for the Great Britain market:
- Bambara groundnut (seeds and seed flour of Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) (new) (Traditional Food)
In Northern Ireland, the Health Minister will be informed of the determination of the terms of authorisation and labelling of this notification.
There have been no further identified reasons to change the advice to ministers on the notification during the consultation process.
On that basis, the final FSA recommendation to ministers will ask them to consider the terms of authorisation and labelling of this notification, as no duly reasoned safety objections have been issued, before market authorisation.
Please be advised that the proposed terms of authorisation remain subject to modification until the official authorisation date.