The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
has published the UK Food Security Report 2024. This report sets
out an analysis of statistical data relating to food security.
This report examines past, current, and future trends relevant to
food security, to present the best available understanding of
food security at the time of publication; the headlines under the
following 5 themes are:
Theme 1: Global Food Availability
Continued stable growth in the production of food, despite
geopolitical and climate shocks. The global trading system in
food has also been stable. The number of undernourished people
around the world is increasing. Climate change, nature loss and
water insecurity pose significant risks to the ability of global
food production to meet demand over the longer term. There is
weak productivity growth globally which makes this more
challenging.
Theme 2: UK Food Supply Sources
The UK's overall balance of trade and production is broadly
stable. Extreme weather events continue to have a significant
effect on domestic production. The UK continues to be highly
dependent on imports to meet consumer demand for fruit,
vegetables and seafood. Long term decline in the UK's natural
capital is a pressing risk to UK food production.
Theme 3: Food Supply Chain Resilience
Russia's invasion of Ukraine caused a spike in input costs such
as energy and fertiliser. Agri-food sector labour shortages
continue. While there was a sharp fall in volume of imports of
Feed, Food and Drink to the UK in 2021, imports have increased
slightly since then and the EU remains the UK's largest external
supplier. Single points of failure in food supply chains pose
resilience risks. Many food businesses have shown resilience and
recovery in response to shocks, but investment levels are not
back to levels before the price shock in 2022.
Theme 4: Household Food Security
While a large majority of households in the UK continue to be
food secure, there has been a notable decrease in food secure
households. There has been a notable rise in inflation both
overall and for the category of food and non-alcoholic beverages
since the beginning of 2021. Most people do not meet government
dietary recommendations, with those from lower-income groups less
likely to meet recommendations than those from the highest-income
groups. Rates of food insecurity vary greatly by demographics,
with a notable difference in levels and experiences between
income groups.
Theme 5: Consumer Confidence and Food Safety.
The results of UK consumer surveys indicate that the levels of
trust in Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland
(FSS) have remained relatively high. There has been an increase
in consumers reporting concerns (prompted) about food prices
since 2021. Laboratory confirmed reports of pathogens that can
cause foodborne gastrointestinal disease and the proportional
trends in foodborne disease outbreak surveillance data generally
remained relatively stable over the period 2019 to 2023, with the
exception of the COVID19 pandemic years. Of the businesses
inspected, analysis indicates an upward trend in food business
hygiene compliance. However, there is still a backlog in the
number of businesses awaiting inspection.
Selvarani Elahi, Deputy Government Chemist, served on the Expert
Elicitation Group for Theme 5.
Additionally, under ‘Sub-theme 2: Food Safety and Authenticity',
the Food Authenticity Network is featured as Case Study 1.
Read the full report at: UK Food
Security Report 2024
