Consumers’ Food Safety Practices in the Home: Trends and Insights From 2020 to 2025

This report brings together existing evidence on consumers’ self-reported food safety practices in the home and explores how they have changed between 2020 and 2025. It considers a wide range of behaviours related to handwashing, cross-contamination, cooking, chilling, use-by dates, and other behaviours such as changes made for financial reasons. The findings describe self-reported behaviour only and should not be used to explain changes in overall rates of foodborne disease (FBD), although improvements in many of the practices discussed are likely to reduce an individuals’ risk of FBD. Across the period, most of the behaviours remained stable with little change over time. A small number of behaviours showed some shifts, although these were often small. For example, some reported handwashing practices declined compared with early in the Covid-19 pandemic. There were some changes in methods used to store raw meat in the fridge, including a slight increase in the reported use of sealed containers. For a number of foods, there was a small short-term decline in the proportion of respondents who said they would avoid eating them past their use-by date. Similarly, there were short-term changes for some financially motivated behaviours. There was a slight decrease in the proportion of people who said they never eat undercooked chicken or turkey, although overall levels remained high. In terms of wider changes, reported use of food-sharing apps increased. Any changes should be understood within the wider social and economic context of the period, for instance the Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of clear, evidence-based communication on basic food safety controls, for example handwashing, chilling, and use-by dates, and the need for continued monitoring to identify any sustained changes in self-reported behaviour.