The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published its latest Incident Prevention Update, highlighting recent food and feed incidents, emerging risks and practical measures businesses can take to prevent them.
The July 2026 update covers reports from May and June and illustrates the wide range of issues affecting food supply chains, including microbiological contamination, allergens, pesticide residues, non-compliant imports, unauthorised ingredients and labelling failures. It also includes examples of counterfeit and fraudulent products.
Of particular relevance to the Food Authenticity Network is the connection between food fraud, authenticity and food safety. The FSA highlights saffron as a commodity at risk from food crime, noting that fraud can in some cases create safety risks. Businesses are advised to source from reputable suppliers and maintain robust authenticity and allergen management controls.
Supplier assurance is a recurring theme. The FSA recommends reviewing supplier specifications, verifying documentation and certificates of analysis, undertaking appropriate testing and conducting due diligence on overseas suppliers. For some imported commodities, businesses are specifically advised to confirm that testing certificates are authentic and that reliable analytical methods have been used.
The scale of the wider challenge is also apparent. The FSA reports 2,073 incident notifications during 2025–26, a 14% increase on 2024–25, while root-cause analysis found that process or material issues accounted for 61% of identified causes. This increase resonates with FAN’s own monitoring of global food fraud and regulatory incidents, which has also identified a rise in reported incidents. Together, these trends reinforce the importance of strong supplier assurance, effective authenticity controls and intelligence-sharing across the food system.
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This information source has beenn added to FAN'sIncident Trends page.
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