F&Y2 Wave 7-8 NI: Introduction

The Food Standards Agency: role, remit, and responsibilities 

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is a non-ministerial government department working to protect public health and consumers’ wider interests in relation to food in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland ^{(footnote 1)}.  The FSA’s overarching mission is ‘food you can trust’. 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. ^{(footnote 2)}

Food and You 2

FSA commissioned Ipsos to develop and run a biannual survey, ‘Food and You 2’, primarily online with the option of participating via a postal questionnaire. More information about the history, methodology and modules included can be found in Food and You 2: Wave 8 and the accompanying technical report.

Previous publications in this series include:

• Food Security in Northern Ireland Wave 1
• Food and You 2: Northern Ireland and Wales Specific Wave 1-2 Key Findings
• Food and You 2: Northern Ireland Wave 3-4 Key Findings
• Food and You 2: Northern Ireland Wave 5-6 Key Findings

Food and You 2: Wave 7 and Wave 8

Wave 7 fieldwork was conducted between 28 April and 10 July 2023, then Wave 8 fieldwork was conducted between 12 October 2023 and 8 January 2024.

For Wave 7 a total of 5,812 adults from 4,006 households completed the survey across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland 1,526 adults completed the survey, (2,968 adults in England and 1,318 adults in Wales). In Northern Ireland, a response rate of 24.6% was achieved; with 57.1% of respondents completing the survey online and 42.9% completing the postal version of the survey.

For Wave 8 a total of 5,808 adults from 4,006 households completed the survey across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland 1,550 adults completed the survey, (2,870 adults in England and 1,388 adults in Wales). In Northern Ireland, a response rate of 24.0% was achieved; with 64.3% of respondents completing the survey online and 35.7% completing the postal version of the survey.

This report presents key findings from the Food and You 2: Wave 7 and Food and You 2: Wave 8 survey. Not all questions asked in the surveys are included in the report. Where the same data were collected in both Waves 7 and 8, the findings from Wave 8 are reported. The full results are available in the accompanying Food and You 2: Wave 7 data tables and underlying data set and Food and You 2: Wave 8 data tables and underlying data set. Findings presented in this report refer to data collected in Northern Ireland unless otherwise specified.

Interpreting the findings

All data collected by Food and You 2 are self-reported. The data are the respondents own reported attitudes, knowledge and behaviour relating to food safety and food issues. As a social research survey, Food and You 2 cannot report observed behaviours.

To highlight the key differences between socio-demographic and other sub-groups, variations in responses 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 some of the differences between some socio-demographic and sub-groups in the population. Data of all sub-groups are available in the Food and You 2: Wave 7 and Food and You 2: Wave 8 data tables.

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

• question wording (question) and response options (response)
• number of respondents presented with each question and description of the respondents who answered the question (Base= N)
• whether data were collected from Wave 7 or Wave 8
• please note:’ indicates important points to consider when interpreting the results