England saw a 26 percent rise in Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infections from 2023 to 2024, and non-O157 STEC cases tripled since 2019. These trends may be driven by one foodborne illness outbreak involving contaminated salad leaves.
Beginning September 1, the “Failure to Prevent Food Fraud” corporate offence under the UK Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act will make it so that large businesses can be held criminally accountable for acts of food fraud committed by an individual within the organization.
In the third case involving the illegal sale of “smokie” meat in the UK within the last year alone, the UK Food Standards Agency’s National Food Crime Unit (FSA’s NFCU) has secured a confiscation order of more than £30,000 for the placing of unsafe food on the market.
The UK National Food Crime Unit’s (NFCU's) Control Strategy for 2025–2026 outlines the unit’s current food crime priorities, bringing focus to its efforts to “prevent food crime, deter and disrupt food criminals, and bring offenders to justice.”
Food safety experts say the ability to enter and search premises immediately following the arrest of food fraud suspects will make it much more difficult for criminals to dispose of incriminating evidence and cover their tracks.
In an April 25 speech, UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) Chief Executive Katie Pettifer described efforts FSA is taking to improve meat industry regulation, including supporting the adoption of new technologies, negotiating international trade agreements, addressing inspector and veterinarian workforce shortages, evaluating inspection charge discounts, and tackling food crime.
To inform the broader third Intestinal Infectious Disease Survey (IID3), the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) conducted a study to calculate burden estimates for four foodborne pathogens: enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), sapovirus, hepatitis A virus, and Toxoplasma gondii.
According to UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) laboratory data on campylobacteriosis and non-typhoidal salmonellosis reports in England for 2014–2023, the total number of confirmed reports for both pathogens reached ten-year highs in 2023, and incidence for both also increased from the previous year.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) recently published its first annual report summarizing infectious disease trends, which noted increases in the incidence of infections by important foodborne pathogens like Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter, and norovirus.
After an investigation by the UK Food Standards Agency, four men and one business have been convicted for diverting meat and animal byproducts that were deemed unsafe for human consumption back into the human food market.
