Food safety incidents reported to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) rose from 1,825 to 2,073 in 2025/26, a 14% increase on the previous year, according to the FSA’s Annual Report of Incidents, Resilience and Prevention 2025/26.
This comes as several high-profile recall issues have dominated headlines this summer. And while recalls are only one outcome of an incident, UK food tech firm, Point74, has warned these raise concerns over supply chain efficiencies.
In late June, Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, M&S and Waitrose pulled fresh fruit pots supplied by Prepworld after Salmonella was found in apple and kiwi ingredients.
In July, Waitrose withdrew packs of its Chocolate Chip Brioche Rolls over the risk of hard plastic and metal contamination, followed the next day by Graham’s Family Dairy, which recalled batches of Semi-Skimmed Milk after veterinary medicines, including penicillin, were detected in the product.
By the end of the month, Bon Bons Wholesale had recalled a range of chocolate products across England, Scotland and Wales for undeclared milk and soya allergens.
Four different causes across four different product categories, with one thing in common – something went wrong before the product reached the shelf.
“Food recalls rarely happen because someone wasn’t trying hard enough,” said Rob Sinclair, CEO of Point74, whose software helps food manufacturers digitise and manage everything from recipe development and costing through to safety, as well as compliance and factory operations following its acquisition of Quor in March this year.
“They happen because critical information, such as an ingredient change, a supplier update or an allergen flag, didn’t get captured or communicated properly.
“Every product on a supermarket shelf has a data trail behind it. When that trail has gaps, that’s when things go wrong. And when mistakes are made at this scale, the damage to consumer trust is significant and lasting.”
The FSA’s breakdown reinforces this point: pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli remain the most common hazards, while allergen-related incidents have risen faster than any other category over the past year.
The cost of a recall rarely ends with the product pull, either. Reputational damage, strained retailer relationships and regulatory scrutiny can follow a brand for years.
Point74 and Quor’s software is designed to help food and drink manufacturers identify risks earlier during the development process before products reach store shelves.
Offering an end-to-end lifecycle management platform it connects ingredients, recipe and supplier data with compliance detail and factory floor processes such as line checks, traceability, and real-time quality monitoring.
As a result, manufacturers can move to a preventative approach in new product delivery rather than reacting when an issue arises.
“Prevention is always cheaper than recall,” Rob added. “The manufacturers who avoid these situations aren’t lucky, they are thorough. They have the right systems in place to catch problems before they become headline news.
“For an industry already under pressure from rising costs, tighter margins and increasing regulation, getting product data right isn’t a back-office concern, it’s a business-critical must.”
