The use of food hygiene rating schemes

The Food Standards Agency (FSA or ‘the Agency’) is an independent Government department responsible for food safety and hygiene in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As part of the Agency’s responsibility for protecting public health from risks which may arise in connection with the consumption of food, the Agency has identified a number of consumer rights, including ‘the right to be protected from unacceptable levels of risk’, and ‘the right to make choices knowing the facts’, and this includes eating and obtaining food outside the home. Providing consumers with the information they need to make informed choices about where they eat out and purchase their food (for example, through food hygiene rating schemes) is a key part of protecting these consumer rights. This paper, the fifth in a series based on secondary analysis of Waves 1-3 of the FSA’s Food and You survey, focuses on the factors that may drive the use of food hygiene rating schemes by consumers

A typology of food safety activities

• Latent class analysis was used to find out if the population could be divided into distinct clusters of people with similar profiles of food safety activities, based on responses to the FSA’s Food and You Survey. Food and You is a cross-sectional survey of adults in the UK, containing a range of questions around activities, attitudes and knowledge relating to food safety and other food-related issues. • Overall, we identified some distinct groups in the population, although there was also quite a lot of similarity across the groups in terms of patterns of food safety activities. People in the largest cluster (54% of the sample) generally tended to report food safety activities that were in line with FSA recommendations, except for washing raw meat and poultry, and storing raw meat and poultry, where a majority of people in the cluster reported activities that were not in line with FSA recommendations. This cluster had a very similar demographic profile (e.g. gender, age, ethnicity) to that of the population as a whole. • People in the second largest cluster (29% of the sample) were the most likely to report most food safety activities in line with recommendations. However, people in this cluster were also the most likely to report washing raw meat and poultry, which is not in line with recommendations. More than half of this cluster was female and a higher proportion than average lived in households with children aged under 16. • Those in the third cluster (10% of the sample) generally reported a similar pattern of food safety activities to those in the largest group (Cluster 1), but the cluster was distinct in that all members reported that they never re-heated food. This cluster included a higher than average proportion of people aged 75 years and over, and of white ethnicity. • People in the fourth cluster (7% of the sample) tended to respond ‘not applicable’ to questions relating to the handling and cooking of raw meat, poultry and fish, suggesting they were rarely involved in these activities. In other aspects, this cluster was relatively similar to Cluster 1. Around two-thirds of the cluster were male, with a higher than average proportion of people aged 16 to 24 years and of black, Asian or other ethnicity. Over a third (38%) reported being vegetarian. • Those in Cluster 5, the smallest cluster (1% of the sample), also tended to respond ‘not applicable’ to questions relating to the handling and cooking of raw meat, poultry and fish. They also reported that they never reheated food, and they were also more likely to respond ‘not applicable’ to cooking food to steaming hot, suggesting that they were much less likely to be involved in cooking and preparing food in general. Around three-quarters of this cluster were male, with a higher than average proportion of people aged 75 years and over. • Further analysis was undertaken to investigate the relationship between demographic characteristics, responses to other food-related questions, and classification to either the first cluster (the majority) or the second cluster (where respondents were the most likely to be practicing high standards of food safety). • The findings suggest that there is some clustering of food-safety-related activities but that some of the differences between the clusters may primarily reflect different levels of engagement with preparing and cooking food, and consumption of different types of food, rather than different patterns in the food safety activities themselves. Further analysis is needed to explore this and whether other food-safety-related activities included in Food and You may be part of this patterning

Vulnerable groups and food safety

The Food Standards Agency (FSA or ‘the Agency’) is the independent Government department responsible for food safety and hygiene in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As part of the Agency’s responsibility for protecting public health from risks which may arise in connection with the consumption of food, two key priorities are minimising the incidence of foodborne disease, and minimising the incidence of food-related allergic reactions. Improving understanding of the population’s food- and food-safety-related behaviour, attitudes and knowledge, and the foodborne risks that consumers are exposed to and vulnerable to, is central to the success of these aims. This paper, the third in a series based on secondary analysis of Waves 1-3 of the FSA’s Food and You survey, focuses on the concept of ‘vulnerable consumers’ and the relationship between ‘vulnerable’ status and food-safety-related behaviour, attitudes and knowledge

Pathological classification of equine recurrent laryngeal neuropathy

Recurrent Laryngeal Neuropathy (RLN) is a highly prevalent and predominantly left‐sided, degenerative disorder of the recurrent laryngeal nerves (RLn) of tall horses, that causes inspiratory stridor at exercise because of intrinsic laryngeal muscle paresis. The associated laryngeal dysfunction and exercise intolerance in athletic horses commonly leads to surgical intervention, retirement or euthanasia with associated financial and welfare implications. Despite speculation, there is a lack of consensus and conflicting evidence supporting the primary classification of RLN, as either a distal (“dying back”) axonopathy or as a primary myelinopathy and as either a (bilateral) mononeuropathy or a polyneuropathy; this uncertainty hinders etiological and pathophysiological research. In this review, we discuss the neuropathological changes and electrophysiological deficits reported in the RLn of affected horses, and the evidence for correct classification of the disorder. In so doing, we summarize and reveal the limitations of much historical research on RLN and propose future directions that might best help identify the etiology and pathophysiology of this enigmatic disorder

Food affordability and safety

The Food Standards Agency (FSA or ‘the Agency’) is an independent government department responsible for food safety and hygiene in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As part of the Agency’s responsibility for protecting consumer interests in relation to food, key priorities are ensuring that food is safe, that it is what it says it is, and that consumers have access to an affordable healthy diet. Improving understanding of the relationship between food affordability and safety is important to the successful delivery of these aims.This paper, the fourth in a series based on secondary analysis of the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA’s) Food and You Survey, focuses on food safety activities in relation to household income