Executive Summary
This report presents the key findings from the Food and You 2 Wave 11 survey carried out in Scotland. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has been running the survey in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since 2020. In Wave 11, Food Standards Scotland (FSS) collaborated with the FSA to enable a sample of consumers in Scotland to be included in the survey. Food and You 2 measures consumers’ self-reported knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to food safety and other food issues amongst adults across the UK.
Fieldwork for Food and You 2 Wave 11 was conducted between 19 May and 7 August 2025. For Wave 11, a total of 1,555 adults (aged 16 years or over) from 1,091 households across Scotland completed the survey.
This report focuses on eating at home and food safety practices, food shopping and labelling, eating out and takeaways and food choices and other issues, such as confidence in food, food concerns, changes to eating habits and food-related behaviours and food allergies and intolerances.
Findings
Eating at home
Cleaning
72% of respondents reported that they always wash their hands before preparing or cooking food.
92% of respondents reported that they always wash their hands immediately after handling raw meat, poultry or fish.
Chilling
61% of respondents reported that their fridge temperature should be between 0-5 degrees Celsius.
54% of respondents who have a fridge reported that they monitored the temperature; either manually (46%) or via an internal temperature alarm (8%).
Defrosting
50% of respondents defrost meat or fish in the fridge and 37% reported leaving the meat or fish at room temperature to defrost.
Cooking
79% of respondents reported that they always cook food until it is steaming hot and cooked all the way through, but 20% reported that they do not always do this.
94% of respondents reported that they never eat chicken or turkey when the meat is pink or has pink juices. 5% of respondents reported eating chicken or turkey at least occasionally when it is pink or has pink juices.
68% of respondents reported that they would never eat beef burgers when the meat is pink or has pink juices but 31% of respondents reported eating beef burgers at least occasionally when the meat is pink or has pink juices.
86% of respondents reported that they would only reheat food once, 9% would reheat food twice, and 3% would reheat food more than twice.
65% of respondents reported that they would eat leftovers from the fridge within 2 days. 22% of respondents reported that they would eat leftovers within three to five days and only 3% would eat leftovers after 5 days or longer.
Avoiding cross-contamination
64% of respondents reported that they never wash raw chicken; however, 33% of respondents reported that they do this at least occasionally.
Food shopping and labelling
67% of respondents reported that they had ordered food or drink online through a restaurant, takeaway or café own website and 60% had ordered from an online ordering and delivery company (for example Just Eat, Deliveroo, Uber Eats).
33% of respondents had ordered food and drink via an online marketplace (for example Amazon, Gumtree, Etsy). The platforms used least by respondents were food sharing apps (for example Olio, Too Good To Go) (19%) and social media platforms (for example, Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor) (8%).
Most respondents reported that they ‘always’ or ‘most of the time’ check the use-by date (85%) or best before date (80%) when they bought food. Respondents reported that they check the list of ingredients (50%), nutritional information (48%), country of origin (47%) and food assurance scheme logos (40%) about half the time or occasionally.
Use-by dates
66% of respondents identified the use-by date as the information which shows that food is no longer safe to eat.
Eating out and takeaways
90% of respondents reported eating out or ordering food from a restaurant and 87% from a café, coffee shop or sandwich shop. 80% ordered a takeaway directly from a takeaway shop or restaurant and 72% had eaten out or ordered food from a pub or bar.
Food Choices and Other Issues
Confidence in food
93% of respondents stated that they are very or fairly confident that the food they buy is safe to eat and 87% are very or fairly confident that the information on food labels (e.g. ingredients, nutritional information, country of origin) is accurate.
Food concerns
34% of respondents reported that they were highly or somewhat concerned about food produced in the UK being safe and hygienic while 64% were highly or somewhat concerned about food outside the UK being safe and hygienic.
33% were highly or somewhat concerned about food produced in the UK being what it says it is, while 60% were highly or somewhat concerned about food from outside the UK being what it says it is.
Changes to eating habits and food-related behaviours
48% of respondents said they had eaten less processed food in the previous 12 months for health reasons. 45% said they had eaten more fruit and/or vegetables and 45% said that they had eaten less sugar or food or drink high in sugar for health reasons.
35% of respondents said they had started minimising food waste for environmental reasons. 25% had started buying foods with minimal or no packaging and 25% had started buying locally produced food or food that is in season for environmental reasons.
Food allergies and intolerances
23% of respondents reported that they suffer from a bad or unpleasant physical reaction after consuming certain foods or avoid certain foods because of the bad or unpleasant physical reaction they might cause. Most (73%) reported that they did not have a food allergy or intolerance.
18% of respondents who reported having a food hypersensitivity had been diagnosed by an NHS or private medical practitioner and 4% had been diagnosed by an alternative or complementary therapist. However, most (81%) had not received any diagnosis.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, our thanks go to all the respondents who gave up their time to take part in the survey.
We would like to thank the team at Ipsos who collected the data and made a significant contribution to the project.
We would like to thank colleagues at FSA, particularly Rachael Shillitoe, Lucy Murray and Helen Heard. Special thanks also to Matt Jenkins and Robin Clifford in the FSA Statistics Team for putting together the data tables for Scotland and Ipsos who played a key role in preparing the data cleaning and analysis, and who prepared the linked Technical Reports.
Within FSS, thanks to the Consumer Research Group for their valuable support and guidance.
Finally, many thanks to everyone at FSS involved in writing, checking of data, reviewing, and revising the report.