What are food or feed incidents?

A food or feed incident occurs when there are concerns about the safety or quality of food and or feed that could require intervention to protect consumers’ interests. 

During an incident, our Scottish Food Crime and Incidents unit (SFCIU) will support public bodies, such as the local authorities in relation to matters concerning food and feed, with the goal of protecting the public from risks to health which may arise in connection with the consumption of food.

Incidents fall broadly into two categories:

• Hazardous - a food or feed incident with the potential to cause an adverse effect to the health or safety of consumers, involving (or suspected to involve) a biological, chemical and or physical agent in, or condition of food
• Non-hazardous - a food or feed incident which does not have the potential to cause an adverse effect to the health or safety of consumers, but which may involve issues detrimental to consumers’ interests such as food standards, integrity, provenance, authenticity, composition and labelling

FSS deals with a wide range of food and feed incidents such as:

• microbiological incidents, including outbreaks of listeria monocytogenes, salmonella, norovirus and E. coli
• allergen incidents, such as mislabelling or undeclared ingredients
• chemical incidents, like pesticide, natural toxins or environmental contaminants
• foreign body in food incidents, for example glass, plastic metal or string
• on-farm incidents affecting animals, such as cattle or sheep
• contaminants that have not been intentionally added to food but may be present because of its production, packaging or environment

All food incidents should be reported to your local authority environmental health department in the first instance. This includes incidents involving poor food hygiene, a foreign object in your food, allergy concerns, labelling issues or the cleanliness of facilities. 

You can also find out the right way to report other food problems.