Qualitative research exploring community food provision

There has been a steady increase in the use of community food providers over the last decade, and this has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The FSA’s Consumer Insights Tracker found that 15% of people (aged 16+) said they had used a food bank or food charity at least once in March 2022. This report explores the journey that food takes from suppliers to end consumers in the community food provision sector in the UK. The overall aim is to understand what support community providers might need in relation to food safety. This research was conducted as a small-scale exploratory piece of work aiming to address the following overarching objectives: How can we ensure that food from community providers is as safe as it should be? How can the FSA best support community providers to comply with food safety guidance?