This is the Food Standards Agency's first Incident Prevention Update and covers:
- Recent incidents
- Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) incident summary
- Signals and emerging issues
- Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Animal feed and pet food incidents
- Did you know?
- New FSA and Institute for Grocery Distribution (IGD) incidents framework
- Publications you may have missed
Figure 1 shows the total number and percentage (%) of the main hazard categories identified in signals; compositional issues was the highest reported hazard, [49%], followed by novel foods, [22%], pathogenic micro-organisms, [8%], labelling related non-compliances, [5%], non-compliance, [5%], other hazards, [5%], allergens, [4%] and heavy metals, [2%].
Between April 2025 and February 2026, 549 signals linked to food supplements were identified and processed by the FSA signal monitoring function. Hazards and issues identified in signals triaged by the FSA were compositional non-compliances, including excess vitamins and minerals, (notably vitamins D, B6, A and iron), unauthorised substances, labelling deficiencies and (unlabelled or incorrectly labelled ingredients). Other food safety concerns identified, albeit at a lower frequency but are potentially serious included pathogenic micro-organisms, [i.e. Salmonella spp.], undeclared allergens and heavy metals.
During this period, FSA observed an increase of non-compliance reports in supplements for compositional failures, non-compliant novel foods, and Salmonella spp. contamination, in particular botanical powders. The country of origin with the highest number of signals identified for supplements was the United States, primarily for composition and unauthorised substances.
The FSA has recently updated its supplement guidance for consumers.
Read full Incident Prevention Update here.
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