Food Standards Agency
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Food and You survey findings of each UK nation published
The Food Standard Agency (FSA) has published Food and You survey findings specific to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The findings provide information on reported behaviours, attitudes and knowledge relating to food issues in 2014. The Food and You survey is published once every two years. In October 2014 the combined UK results were published.
All Food and You survey reports and data can be found at www.food.gov.uk/food-and-you
England
The main findings in England:
- Overall, 53% of respondents at Wave 3 said that they had made at least one change in their buying or eating arrangements in the last six months for financial reasons, compared with 62% at Wave 2.
- Almost half of respondents who had a fridge (47%) reported never checking their fridge temperature.
- Half (50%) of respondents who reported storing raw meat and poultry in the fridge reported practices in line with those recommended to avoid cross contamination.
- 65% of respondents recognised the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, and 20% reported using a scheme to check the hygiene rating of an establishment before choosing to eat there.
Regional differences were also identified:
- Respondents living in London and the North East were less likely to report always using different chopping boards for different foods (reported by 34% of respondents in each region), than those in all other regions (50% to 60%).
- Those living in the North West (63%) and West Midlands (60%) were more likely to report behaviour in line with recommended practice for storing meat in their fridge, than those in London (45%), the North East (43%), East (46%) and South East (43%).
- Respondents living in the North East were more likely to say that cleanliness and hygiene were the most important factor to them when choosing where to eat out (48%) compared with those in the North West (31%), London (29%), the South East (31%) and the South West (29%).
- Respondents living in London were more likely to report using a food hygiene rating scheme in the last 12 months (23%) along with respondents in the North East (29%), North West (22%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (24%), compared with those in the South East (14%).
Read the reports
England executive summary (273.47 KB) The 2014 Food and You Survey
England bulletin: Eating, cooking and shopping (797.98 KB) The 2014 Food and You Survey
England bulletin: Food safety in the home (1.03 MB) The 2014 Food and You Survey
England bulletin: Eating outside the home (762.87 KB) The 2014 Food and You Survey
England bulletin: Food poisoning and attitudes towards food safety and food production (674.81 KB) The 2014 Food and You Survey
About the survey
The survey provides data on people’s reported food purchasing, storage, preparation, consumption and factors that may affect these, such as eating habits, influences on where respondents choose to eat out and experiences of food poisoning.
This is the third round of the survey which consisted of 3,453 interviews with a representative sample of adults aged 16 and over across the UK. Food and You is carried out on behalf on the FSA by TNS BMRB.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Summary information about the findings in the other three UK nations can be found via the links below. As well as the survey providing insights into food safety issues, for Scotland and Northern Ireland two additional bulletins are published about nutrition issues:
- advice on healthy eating
- eating and health