Evolution of Food and You 2
The FSA was established in 2000 following several high-profile outbreaks of foodborne illness. We work to protect public health and consumers’ wider interests in relation to food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Between 2000 and 2008 we conducted an annual Public Attitudes Tracker. In 2010 this was replaced with ‘Food and You’ – a more rigorous survey using a random probability sampling approach and a nationally representative sample of adults (16+ years). This became our flagship survey and in 2014 was recognised as an Official Statistic.
In 2018 our Advisory Committee for Social Science (ACSS) conducted a review of the survey and recommended we move away from face-to-face interviews and start using a ‘push-to-web’ approach. ‘Push-to-web’ is a quantitative data collection method in which offline contact modes (i.e. postal invitations) are used to encourage (or ‘push’) participants to go online and complete a web survey.
Our new ‘push-to-web’ survey, which we creatively dubbed ‘Food and You 2’, launched in July 2020. With the help of Ipsos MORI who conduct the survey on the FSA’s behalf, the Wave 1 report was published in March 2021. Wave 2 was published in July 2021 and Wave 3 is now also available for your reading pleasure!
Merits of the new methodology
One of the main advantages of this modernised approach is that it’s more cost-effective than face-to-face data collection, which has meant we’ve increased the overall sample size to 4,000 households (including 1,000 households in both Northern Ireland and Wales). This means we’re able to dig deeper into the data and compare findings across key demographics of interest, which helps us understand behaviours on a more granular level and can help us understand where we may need further research and where we should target future communications.
An equally important advantage is that it’s much quicker to do online research versus face-to-face, meaning our fieldwork and reporting are timelier and more frequent (every 6 months), making the survey much closer to real-time monitoring. By using a modular approach, we also have a lot of flexibility in terms of what questions we ask and when, particularly beneficial as the ‘food space’ is diverse and top-of-mind. For example, with the rising salience of food and climate change, we’re looking more closely at meat alternatives and sustainable diets in Wave 4.
Finally, by removing the interviewer, responses are less susceptible to social desirability bias. This is especially important when we’re exploring food safety and hygiene behaviours in the home, for example handwashing, or when we’re asking sensitive questions, such as those about food insecurity. Despite this, we do recognise the limitation of Food and You 2 in only being able to measure self-reported behaviour, so we are currently conducting an ethnographic study (Kitchen Life 2) to observe and explore differences in the say-do gap (i.e. behaviours people report doing vs what they actually do). Results from Kitchen Life 1 are available online, with findings from Kitchen Life 2 due to be published in 2022.
Overcoming drawbacks of the new methodology
Non-response bias can arise in online surveys because respondents without internet access or low digital literacy are unable or unwilling to take part in the survey online. To minimise non-response bias, we use an offline data collection mode (postal questionnaire) as an alternative to the online survey. By doing this, we ensure that the survey sample is less skewed towards a younger, more affluent demographic (who tend to be more likely to respond online).
Minimising sampling bias is also an important consideration and to do this we use a random probability sampling approach where the sample of addresses is drawn from the Postcode Address File (PAF). At each address, up to two adults (16+ years) are invited to take part in the survey. There are many approaches that could have been used to select adults within households, for example other surveys have requested that the two adults with the most recent birthdays or those with the two next birthdays take part. However, such methods add a level of complexity which can act as a barrier to completion and can be misinterpreted by respondents. We decided not to apply any selection criteria for taking part in the survey, instead inviting any two members of the household aged 16 years or older to take part, as this method almost always selects the same people as would have been selected using random procedures and minimises complexity.
An equally important consideration is to ensure respondents give accurate answers to the questions we ask. There were two questions that we considered when developing Food and You 2: firstly, how can we be sure that respondents’ answers are not influenced by the mode of completion (i.e. online or offline) and, secondly, how can we ensure that online responses don’t vary depending on the device used (e.g. desktop, laptop, mobile). To minimise the variance between online and offline responses, we aim to align wording as much as possible and maximise similarities across question and answer formats, as well as visual design. In order to minimise differences between online methods of completion, we adopt a ‘mobile-first’ approach – given this mode of delivery is the most restrictive, if a survey works well on a smartphone, then it will translate equally well to tablet/PC administration.
A break in the time-series
The change in methodology has allowed us to futureproof the Food and You survey, but has also meant that there is a break in the data time-series, and findings between Food and You 2 and Food and You 1 are not directly comparable. Whilst we could have investigated the impact of changing mode, for instance by doing a parallel run of face-to-face and online fieldwork, we decided not to go down that route due to the associated cost of this additional fieldwork and the limited existing time series.
A snapshot of consumers’ food safety behaviours
To give just a flavour of the type of data we capture, we’ll look at some food safety measures captured in the survey
Cleanliness
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the Covid-19 pandemic and the ubiquitous messaging around handwashing, the majority of people reported that they always wash their hands before they cook / prep food (77%) and after handling raw meat or fish (89%).
Cooking
Most people
always cook food until it’s steaming hot and cooked all the way through (80%) and the majority report
never eating meat if it’s pink or has pink/red juices, with the exception of red meat. Over 9 in 10 would
never eat sausages (95%), pork (93%) or chicken and turkey (93%) when pink, around two thirds (67%) would never eat beef burgers or duck when pink, but this proportion drops to 36% for red meat.
Chilling
Our data also tells us that there’s a gap in knowledge around chilling and defrosting food, with 6 in 10 (60%) knowing that the recommended fridge temperature is between 0 and 5C and only 63% checking their fridge temperature (with younger adults less likely than older adults to do this). In terms of defrosting, almost half told us that they defrost meat or fish at room temperature – but we recommend using the fridge or the defrost setting on a microwave.
Cross-contamination
Though over half (60%) reported that they
never wash raw chicken, a fifth (20%) say that they
always do, which isn’t something we recommend as it leaves open the risk of spreading harmful bacteria onto hands, clothes, utensils and worktops. Interestingly, the main reason that people wash raw chicken is to clean the meat of things like slime, juice or blood.
Conclusions
Ultimately, we’ve seen some real benefits to moving from face-to-face interviewing to push-to-web, namely that it’s more cost-effective, has enabled us to increase the sample size and gather data more regularly. The Wave 1 and Wave 2 reports provide a more detailed picture of the range of questions we cover in Food and You 2 (e.g. food concerns, hypersensitivities, shopping, eating out habits etc). We capture a range of rich data as part of Food and You 2, providing a unique open dataset used across the Government and by academics, so we encourage anyone interested to make full use of this data source for their own analyses. We also warmly invite any thoughts and insights into the survey – you can comment below or contact us at [email protected].
Info on dataset
Age/Date data started to be collected:
- Due to changing methodologies, Food and You 2: Wave 1 which launched in July 2020 was the start of a new data time series so the findings are not directly comparable with previous surveys.
Frequency of data collection:
- Food and You 2 fieldwork is conducted every 6 months.
Number of respondents per year/per data collection point:
- 4,000 households per wave (including 1,000 in both Northern Ireland and Wales)
Number of questions:
- We take a modular approach to Food and You 2, with core modules on food concerns and trust in food and the FSA that we always ask and some modules which we rotate, so the number of questions varies.
Time it takes a participant to complete the survey
- The average completion time for the online survey is around 30 minutes
Types of questions:
- We cover a range of topics from food safety to healthy eating and everything in between.
Where to find data releases and guides:
Where to find new analyses or recent reports:
Access to datasets (with links):
- The datasets can be downloaded from the UK Data Service and data tables are available below:
Author Bios:
Ayla Ibrahimi is a Social Science Research Officer and project lead for Food and You 2 at the Food Standards Agency. Ayla studied Politics and International Relations at Durham University and has previously worked across a range of market research agencies, leading largescale mixed-methods projects for clients from a variety of sectors including public sector, brand and TV & media.
Lucy King is a Principal Research Officer in the FSA and leads the Food and You 2 research programme. Lucy has a BSc in Psychology and MSc in Occupational Psychology. Before joining the FSA Lucy worked for the Ministry of Defence where she delivered multiple Official Statistic surveys.
Dr Beth Armstrong is the Food and You 2 Research Fellow at the FSA and is based at The University of Sheffield. Beth’s research interests include consumer psychology, healthy and sustainable diets, food waste, consumer food choices, and citizen science.