Background and methodology
Background to the survey and research objectives
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has been tracking small and micro Food Business Operators (FBO) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since 2018 in order to better understand attitudes towards food-related topics, and trust in the FSA and food system. This has helped FSA inform engagement and intervention activity targeted at businesses with fewer than 50 staff.
This represents the fifth wave of the tracking survey from 2025, when the survey was extended to include Scottish FBOs, enabling Food Standards Scotland (FSS) to gather comparable insights under the same objectives.
- The tracking survey covers the following aims:
- To ‘unpack’ attitudes towards regulation and deepen insights and knowledge of small and micro enterprises in Scotland
- To measure trust in the FSS and the extent to which FSS is considered a modern, accountable regulator
Findings specific to FBOs in England, Northern Ireland and Wales are presented in a separate report published by the FSA.
Research methodology
Fieldwork was conducted by IFF Research, an independent research company. Following a period of cognitive fieldwork where the questionnaire was tested among a small subset of businesses, a total of 150 interviews were conducted via a Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) methodology. All interviews were with small (10-49 employees) and micro (less than 10 employees) FBOs based in Scotland. The interviews lasted 20 minutes on average.
The sample was selected from FSS’s business database which was matched by company name and address using a commercial sample provider (Market Location). The sample was drawn on the 28 August 2025 using country, size, Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS) rating, and sector targets. An additional sample was incorporated on 28 October 2025 to further support the achievement of targets within the food and beverage sector. Screener questions at the start of the survey ensured that only in-scope businesses completed the survey. To be in scope, an FBO needed to have at least one site, have less than 49 employees, sell or serve and food products for human consumption in line with the approach taken since 2018. FBOs that were part of a franchise were also screened out of the survey. Targets are shown in Table1.
Table 1. Interview targets by sector, rating, and number of employees
| Sector grouping | Total |
|---|---|
| Manufacturing | 16 |
| Wholesale | 21 |
| Retail | 30 |
| Accommodation | 17 |
| Food and beverage service activities | 66 |
| FHIS rating | Total |
| Pass | 117 |
| Improvement Required | 19 |
| Exempt | 14 |
| Number of employees | Total |
| Fewer than 10 | 97 |
| Between 10 and 19 | 37 |
| Between 20 and 49 | 16 |
| Total | 150 |
In line with the overall target, a total of 150 small and micro FBOs in Scotland were surveyed. The final profile of completed interviews in Scotland for Wave 5 is shown in Table 2 below:
Table 2. Profile of completed Wave 5 interviews
| Sector grouping | Total |
|---|---|
| Manufacturing | 10 |
| Wholesale | 16 |
| Retail | 28 |
| Accommodation | 17 |
| Food and beverage service activities | 65 |
| FHRS rating | Total |
| Pass | 108 |
| Improvement Required | 19 |
| Exempt | 9 |
| Number of employees | England |
| Fewer than 10 | 88 |
| Between 10 and 24 | 35 |
| Between 25 and 49 | 13 |
| Total | 150 |
The data was weighted to be representative of the micro and small FBO population across Scotland at the time of sampling. IFF Research obtained information on the underlying population of businesses eligible for the tracker in terms of sector and size from NOMIS on 24 July 2025. The most recent business population data available was filtered on small and micro FBOs (i.e., less than 50 employees) operating in Scotland and sectors in-scope for the research (using the UK Standard Industrial Classification).[1]
Once eligible business population counts had been obtained, the incidence of Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS) ratings in Scotland was applied to derive the number of eligible businesses in rating groupings.
Notes on the report
Throughout the report references to business size are based on number of employees unless otherwise specified. Sole trader refers to a self-employed business owner with no employees.
The term ‘service activities’ is used throughout the report as shorthand for the 'food and beverage service activities’ sector. This sector incorporates restaurants, cafes, pubs, and other catering businesses.
When percentages are provided in the text for sub-groups such as by size and sector, the sub-group percentage shown is statistically significantly different to the average of those not in this sub-group, at the 95% confidence level. The phrasing “most likely”, “more likely than average” or “particularly likely” etc. is used as a shorthand for this. All differences reported are statistically significant unless otherwise stated.
Please note that in some cases, response codes have been combined for reporting (e.g., ‘Very confident’ and ‘Fairly confident’ reported together as ‘Confident’). As percentages are rounded to zero decimal places, minor rounding differences occur between the combined figure and the sum of the individual codes.
Unless explicitly noted, all findings are based on weighted data. Unweighted bases (the number of responses from which the findings are derived) are displayed on tables and charts as appropriate, to give an indication of the robustness of results.
It is important to note that, with a total sample size of 150, some questions and several subgroups have fewer than 50 respondents. Please be cautious when interpreting or generalising these findings to the wider population. In some instances, where questions are routed to a very small subset of respondents, results are reported in a qualitative style, and unweighted figures are used (e.g. 20 out of 60 businesses).
As Scottish FBOs were included for the first time in Wave 5, the data cannot be compared with earlier waves.