Half of consumers worried about amount of sugar in food

The latest edition of the Food Standards Agency (FSA)’s biannual Attitudes Tracker also reported a third (31%) of the 2,150 respondents were concerned about food hygiene when eating out and 51% were worried about food waste.

Three in 10 respondents were concerned about chemicals from the environment such as lead in food, 29% about the use of pesticides to grow food and 28% were worried about food poisoning such as salmonella and E. coli.

Hygiene standards

Some 85% reported being aware of the standard of hygiene when they eat at pubs, restaurants, cafés and from takeaways and 66% knew the standard of hygiene from stickers or certificates on the premises.

The survey also asked consumers about food poisoning and found 79% thought they were most likely to get it from raw chicken and turkey, following by shellfish (56%) and reheated takeaway (49%).

FSA's head of food hygiene rating system, Angela Towers, said: "The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme gives consumers the information they need to make informed decisions about where they eat out and enables them to vote with their feet."

Mandatory display

She added: "We are pleased to see continuing increased use of the scheme, which further highlights a need to make the information it provides more accessible in England through mandatory display of hygiene ratings.

"This has been successful in Wales and Northern Ireland and we remain committed to seeing this introduced in England."