List of commodity codes and categories

This publication presents a comprehensive list of 8-digit commodity codes within FSA’s remit that are allocated into categories under Food, Feed, POAO (product of animal origin), FNAO (food not of animal origin) and non-food items.  

Background

Development of this list started with the aim to get agreement across the FSA on a standard list of 8-digit commodity codes that are allocated into different commodity categories. The purpose of this is to provide consistency across internal projects which can refer to this accepted list of how commodity codes are assigned to categories with their definitions. The list will additionally provide transparency for analysis on trade imports that was completed for the 2022 annual report on food standards. The list was finalised at the end of February 2023 alongside the final month of 2022 trade data being available at UK Trade Info.

Approach

This publication was produced internally by the Analytics Unit in conjunction with teams across the FSA including Risk Assessment Unit, Data, Veterinary Services & Trade Facilitation and FSA Northern Ireland as well as with Food Standards Scotland (FSS). Stakeholders contributed to developing categories with definitions to assign commodity codes into through a workshop and reviews of the list. 

The commodity codes and descriptions in the list are sourced from HMRC trade data. The categories have been developed by the FSA. This version 1 of the list was applied in analysis on trade for the 2022 annual report on food standards. 

Outcome

The publication contains two tables detailing the list and category definitions. This is likely to require future development and assigning of additional subcategories if used for other analysis after March 2023. 

The FSA List is a table that presents a comprehensive list of all food and feed under FSA's remit. Kitchenware that is subject to import controls is included in the list and allocated to the non-food items category. Each row of the table presents a commodity code, its description, whether the commodity is food, feed, POAO (product of animal origin), FNAO (food not of animal origin), the category the commodity is allocated to and a potential subcategory that it could be further allocated into.

The Category Definitions table presents a summary of the categories that commodity codes have been allocated to in the FSA list and provides a definition or example of what is included in the category. Potential subcategories are defined that could be developed in future work and versions of the list. These have not been applied in analysis for the 2022 annual report on food standards.

Additional information

Our Food 2021: An annual review of food standards across the UK