In this article we welcome guest author and industry expert, Alec Kyriakides, to explore some of the food safety developments, recalls and incidents that have happened recently.

 

Food Safety Developments

Gastrointestinal infections in England

The UK Health Security Agency (HSA) published its latest data on laboratory reports and rates of gastrointestinal infection in England for 2025. Reported cases of campylobacteriosis deceased slightly to 69,394 (118.3 cases per 100 000 population) from a high of 70,392 (120.1 per 100 000) in 2024. Non-typhoidal salmonellosis levels remained stable (10,406 cases in 2025, 10,389 in 2024) and this was also seen with listeriosis (England and Wales) (180 in 2025, 179 in 2024) and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157 (STEC O157) (568 in 2025, 564 in 2024). Pathogens where reported cases increased included STEC non-O157 (2851 in 2025, 2762 in 2024), Shigella spp. (5453 in 2025, 5169 in 2024), Clostridium perfringens (2002 in 2025, 1707 in 2024), Vibrio spp. (230 in 2025, 156 in 2024) and Yersinia spp. where reported cases more than doubled (1443 in 2025 with a case rate of 2.5 per 100 000, 660 in 2024 with a case rate of 1.1 per 100 000). This increase in yersiniosis has been attributed to increased laboratory reporting as it became a notifiable pathogen.

HSA also published a report on common animal-associated infections in England with a key highlight being an increase in Hepatitis E virus infections which have increased by 102.6% between 2017 and 2025 to 1489 cases. Other notable changes included a 12.9% year on year increase in toxoplasmosis to 228 cases in 2025 and a slight decrease in brucellosis from 31 cases in 2024 to 23 cases in 2025.

 

Foodborne outbreaks source attribution USA

The Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration (IFSAC) consisting of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and US Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) published its latest estimate of the percentages of foodborne illness attributed to 17 food categories for Salmonella spp., E. coli O157 and Listeria monocytogenes. The report highlighted that salmonellosis came from a wide variety of foods with over 75% of illnesses being attributed to six food categories: chicken (19.1%), fruits (14.2%), seeded vegetables (13.0%, such as tomatoes), pork (11.7%), other produce (10.0%, such as nuts), and beef (7.8%). This contrasted with E. coli O157 where more than 85% of illnesses were most often linked to two food categories - vegetable row crops (67.9%, such as leafy greens) and beef (18.6%). Similarly, listeriosis was mainly linked to three food categories with over 75% attributed to dairy (31.9%), vegetable row crops (27.4%), and fruits (15.9%).

 

Foodborne outbreaks in Hong Kong

A report by the Centre for Food Safety in Hong Kong demonstrated the regional differences in foodborne pathogen infections driven by dietary choices around the world. Of the 113 recorded outbreaks in 2025 (the lowest number in the last decade), the highest proportion were caused by norovirus (47.8%) followed by Vibrio parahaemolyticus (21.2%) with the consumption of raw oysters and undercooked seafood being highlighted as a common underlying cause. Unpasteurised and raw eggs were highlighted as a significant risk factor in salmonellosis outbreaks which represented 19.5% of the overall total.

 

Global food fraud report 2025

The Food Authenticity Network published its annual Global Food Fraud Report for 2025 based on global food fraud reports from three commercial food fraud incident collation tools. The report highlighted the need for more global regulatory agencies to publish their food fraud data in open access format. The commodity groups with the most food fraud reports were ‘Processed foods’, ‘Milk & diary products’ and ‘Beverages’ when regulatory reports only were considered and ‘Dairy’, ‘Meat & Poultry’ and ‘Herbs & Spices’ when regulatory, media and peer reviewed publication reports were used. The top food fraud types included labelling, use of non-food substances, dilution/ substitution and artificial enhancement fraud.

 

Honey authenticity

An excellent article providing a comprehensive overview of the current status of honey authenticity and the challenges in analytical testing to verify this was recently published. The article highlights that indicators of fraud do exist but variation in test methodology and the lack of global harmonisation in this area make understanding the extent of fraud challenging.

 

Herbs and spices authenticity

Maintaining the fraud theme, the UK Seasonings and Spices Association (SSA) has published an industry best practice guide on vulnerability assessment for culinary dried herbs and spices. The guide provides important considerations for food business operators to identify potential vulnerabilities in the supply chain and enable improved preventative controls to safeguard product integrity. It also includes a very helpful decision tree to protect herbs and spices against supply chain vulnerabilities.

 

EU feed contamination guidelines

The European Union published guidelines on measures for Member States to identify clear criteria to evaluate the methods used by Feed Business Operators (e.g. use of micro-tracers, sampling methods, etc.) to ensure the appropriate homogeneity of feed and to assess and control cross-contamination. Although intended for competent authorities it is useful guidance for those in the feed sector.

 

Global food safety training survey

A report by a group of nine training providers surveying over 3000 predominantly food and drink businesses globally highlighted the biggest training challenges in food safety to be scheduling time for training, making training engaging, assessing training effectiveness, resources/staff to manage training delivery and documentation and providing job specific training. It was also noted that capability/competency frameworks are under-utilised and could drive improvements together with the use of technology and tools to help increase training effectiveness (such as through organisation, management, tracking, delivery, communication, evaluation).

 

FSA incident prevention update

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has recently introduced a regular food Incident Prevention Update that highlights emerging food safety issues and incidents to registered participants. It provides overviews of recent issues and incidents together with signals relating to potential future issues and is particularly useful to those managing food safety risk in businesses.

 

Safe2Eat campaign

The European Food Safety Authority launched its annual campaign to provide science-backed guidance to consumers on food safety information. The campaign focusses in three key areas; safe food practices, food and your health and what’s in your food.

 

Foodborne disease outbreaks

An outbreak of Hepatitis A infection in Sweden initially occurring between September to December 2025 has re-emerged with further infections in February and March 2026. The implicated foods are frozen strawberries and raspberries. A multicounty salmonellosis outbreak was reported by the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) affecting 6 EU countries and the UK with at least 48 reports of illness (5 hospitalised) in Ireland, Finland and the UK. The causative organism is Salmonella Bovismorbificans and the implicated food is sprouted seeds and microgreens. An outbreak implicating hazelnut nougat cream due to Salmonella Bochum caused over 40 illnesses in Germany with one reported fatality. A restaurant associated salmonellosis outbreak occurred in the USA affecting 29 confirmed cases (7 hospitalisations) and 57 probable cases due to suspected cross contamination within the kitchen. The salmonellosis outbreak implicating pistachios and pistachio containing products in Canada continues to result in further illnesses with the number of cases now reported at 189 and 26 hospitalisations. Although not associated with an outbreak or illness, an alert was issued due to contamination of baby food with rat poison in Austria. Some interesting reports on historical foodborne disease outbreaks were published including an STEC O157 outbreak linked to the consumption of raw horse meat in Japan affecting 74 people and an outbreak in the USA due to chocolate bars containing mushroom-derived psychoactive substances that caused 180 cases with 73 hospitalisations and two deaths.

 

Food Recall Highlights

The data used for this food recall highlights review is sourced from open access recall databases covering different countries and continents including the USA (Food & Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture), the UK (Food Standards Agency), Germany (Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety) and Australia (Food Standards Australia New Zealand).

 

Microbiological recalls were dominated by Salmonella spp. implicating a number of the usual culprits including sprouts, herbs and pistachio products together with an unusual one from powdered drinks. Recalls due to foods presenting a potential botulism risk were also notable.

 

Allergen recalls were spread more evenly with infrequent allergens such as sesame and celery featuring this month. Peanut in garlic powder continues to highlight the risk from the herbs and spices supply chain and reinforces the importance of the published guidance on in this sector.

 

Physical contamination recalls continued to feature a number due to rodent contamination.

 

Chemical recalls included a number due to the illegal presence of sildenafil and tadalafil.

   

Author

Alec Kyriakides

Independent Food Safety Consultant