The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has launched its vision and new strategy for the next five years, whilst also marking its 20th anniversary by revealing new research that provides an insight into consumer attitudes to food safety.
FSAI’s new Strategy 2019-2023 sets out a clear roadmap with benchmarks for achievement to further protect consumers of Irish food. It incorporates increasing compliance with the law amongst Irish food businesses through enhanced collaboration and by leveraging the best science and evidence to further national policy for the benefit of consumer safety in relation to food.
The FSAI also revealed findings from its national attitudinal research with consumers on food safety and hygiene, shopping habits and eating out, and concerns about food and the food industry.
Overall, there is confidence in the safety of Irish food with nine out of ten people (89%) saying food is safe or safer than it was five years ago. However, consumers themselves admitted that they demonstrate risky behaviours in relation to food handling at home. For example, nearly half of Irish population (45%) do not pay full attention to ‘use-by’ dates, with seven out of ten people (72%) claiming that they have used food past its ‘use-by’ date. Just over 6 in 10 (62%) leave leftovers to cool out of the fridge overnight, to eat in the next couple of days, with nearly half the population (49%) storing food in the fridge without any wrapping.