At a September 18 meeting, the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) Board considered a new approach to national food hygiene regulation for large supermarket retailers, taking into account the results of a proof-of-concept trial with five major chains.

At present, supermarkets are subjected to a planned inspection every few years by local authorities. In contrast, the Large Retailer Proof-of-Concept trial, which took place from April 2023–March 2024, tested an approach that would shift focus away from premises-level compliance checks, relying instead on the monitoring of food safety management data. The aim of the new approach is to continue to ensure food safety while easing pressure on regulatory resources as the numbers of inspection personnel continues to decline.

Specifically, during the trial, FSA reviewed monthly data from internal and third-party audits on many areas of participating retailers’ hygiene control systems, including chilling processes, pest control, and cleaning. The UK’s ten largest retailers (occupying the largest share of the grocery market) were invited to participate, five of which decided to take part in the trial.

FSA was able to leverage data from more than 10,000 audits for the trial, compared with the 1,500 local authority inspections carried out under the currently implemented regulatory program. Environmental health officers carried out occasional in-person inspections to verify the data, and there was a high level of alignment between the retailers’ data and the environmental health officers’ observations.

Additionally, during the trial, FSA was able to observe trends in performance across all participating retailers' stores and could identify new opportunities for improvements to food safety systems.

Based on the trial, FSA concluded that the new approach to regulating large supermarkets can likely deliver the same—if not better—insight into compliance as what could be accessed through routine inspections by local authorities.

At the September 18 meeting, the FSA Board agreed that the new approach to regulating large retailers could be viable, and asked for further exploration of the idea through engagement and consultation with local authorities, primary authorities, businesses, and consumers, as well as discussions with governments across the UK. The Board did not concretely discuss long-term change, which would require legislation, but they agreed to return to the issue at a later date and asked to see detailed next steps at the next meeting in December 2024.