UKHospitality has welcomed today’s publication of the first comprehensive assessment of food standards in the UK. The trade body said the joint Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) report – Our Food 2021 – comes at a ‘challenging’ time for the hospitality sector, as it begins its post-pandemic recovery.
UKHospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said:
“Food safety is a key element of the UKHospitality agenda and although our industry faced numerous challenges during Covid, serving our customers safe and healthy food always remained a priority.
“Indeed, it was during the difficult past two years that the hospitality sector implemented two major pieces of food labelling legislation: Natasha’s Law allergen labelling and, in England, menu calorie labelling.
“We’re delighted, therefore, that this new report reveals allergen-related incidents have fallen by nearly a quarter compared to 2019. This of course reflects the fact that many hospitality businesses were closed for part of this period, but also illustrates that the sector is stepping up in this area, and recognises the continued and ongoing importance of communicating allergen information.
“We’re also pleased to see that 97% of food businesses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 94% in Scotland, received a satisfactory or higher rating under the Food Hygiene Rating schemes, and in England, Wales and Northern Ireland three quarters of food business received the highest rating.
“UKHospitality will continue to work closely with the FSA and FSS to maintain and improve the high food standards that exist in hospitality.”
Our Food 2021 is described as a ‘timely assessment of the state of the nation’s plate’.
