Food and You 2 FHRS Wave 4: Introduction

The Food Standards Agency: role, remit, and responsibilities 

The FSA’s vision as set out in the 2022-2027 strategy is a food system in which:

• Food is safe
• Food is what it says it is
• Food is healthier and more sustainable

Food and You 2 is designed to monitor the FSA’s progress against this vision and inform policy decisions by measuring self-reported consumers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to food safety and other food issues in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland on a regular basis.

Introduction to FHRS

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme ^(footnote) (FHRS), which operates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland was launched in 2010 and helps people make informed choices about where to eat out or shop for food by giving clear information about the businesses’ hygiene standards found at the time of local authority food hygiene inspections. Ratings are given to places where food is supplied or sold directly to people, such as restaurants, pubs, cafés, takeaways, hotels, schools, hospitals, care homes, supermarkets and other retailers. In Wales, the scheme also includes businesses that trade only with other businesses, for example, manufacturers.

The FSA runs the scheme in partnership with local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A food safety officer from the local authority inspects a business to check that it follows food hygiene law so that the food is safe to eat. Businesses are given a rating from 0 to 5. A rating of 5 indicates that hygiene standards are very good and a rating of 0 indicates that urgent improvement is required. 

Food businesses are provided with a sticker which shows their rating. In England businesses are encouraged to display their rating, however in Wales and Northern Ireland food businesses are legally required to display their rating^(footnote). Ratings are also available on the FSA ratings website and via other third-party apps.

Food and You 2

Ipsos were commissioned by the FSA to develop and run a biannual survey, ‘Food and You 2’, carried out primarily online. Food and You 2 replaces the FSA’s face-to-face Food and You survey (2010-2018)^(footnote), Public Attitudes Tracker (2010-2019) and Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) - Consumer Attitudes Tracker (2014-2019). Due to differences in the question content, presentation and mode of response, direct comparisons should not be made between these earlier surveys and Food and You 2. More information about the history and methodology can be found in Annex A. 

Fieldwork for Food and You 2: Wave 4 was conducted between 18th October 2021 and 10th January 2022. A total of 5,796 adults from 4,026 households across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland completed the ‘push-to-web’ survey. The modules presented in Food and You 2: Wave 4 include ‘Food you can trust’, ‘Concerns about food’, ’Food security’, ‘Eating out and takeaway’, ‘Food allergies, intolerances, and other hypersensitivities’, ‘Eating at home’, ‘Food shopping: sustainability and environmental impact’ and ‘Sustainable diets, meat alternatives and genetic technologies’.

This report presents key findings from the Food and You 2: Wave 4 survey relating to the FHRS, including respondents’ awareness, recognition and use of the FHRS, understanding and impact of the FHRS on behaviour and attitudes toward the FHRS. Not all questions asked in the Food and You 2: Wave 4 survey are included in the report. The full results are available in the accompanying data tables and underlying dataset. 

A Food and You 2: Wave 1-4 Trends report is expected to be published in 2023. However, FHRS trend data will not be reported until a minimum of three waves of FHRS data have been collected. The ‘Eating out and takeaway’ module which includes the questions relating to the FHRS is featured in alternate waves of the Food and You 2 survey, from wave 2 onwards. 

Interpreting the findings

To highlight the key differences between socio-demographic and other sub-groups, variation in response profiles are typically reported only where the absolute difference is 10 percentage points or larger and is statistically significant at the 5% level (p<0.05). However, some differences between socio-demographic and other sub-groups are included where the difference is fewer than 10 percentage points, when the finding is notable or judged to be of interest. These differences are indicated with a double asterisk (**). 

The report presents differences between some socio-demographic and sub-groups in the population. In some cases, it was not possible to include the data of all sub-groups, however these data are available in the full data set and tables. 

Key information is provided for each reported question in the footnotes, including:   

• Question wording (question) and response options (responses). 
• Number of respondents presented with each question and description of the respondents who answered the question (base = ).
• Please note: indicates important points to consider when interpreting the results.