Official Statistics

United Kingdom Food Security Report 2024: Introduction

Published 11 December 2024

Part of the United Kingdom Food Security Report 2024

Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 19 of the Agriculture Act 2020

© Crown copyright 2024

ISBN 978-1-5286-5232-2

Executive Summary

Context

The period of 2021 to 2024 began with continuing societal responses to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic alongside adjusting to a new relationship with European Union (EU) and European Economic Area trade (EEA) partners following the UK leaving the EU. Global supply chains dealt with consecutive declines and then surges in demand, in many cases driven by government infection and control measures followed by economic stimulus. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 transformed the world’s economic and geopolitical situation and was particularly disruptive to energy and grain supplies. This had significant consequences for global and UK food security, including widespread increase in food prices. Conflict in the Middle East further disrupted the system by altering supply routes and the navigational safety of the Red Sea, but with more limited consequences, demonstrating the ability of the global trade system to adjust to localised disruption. Extreme weather conditions in the UK and across the globe made more likely by climate change have caused further food chain disruptions but often with more localised impacts.

Findings by theme

By UKFSR theme, the most important takeaways are:

Theme 1: Global Food Availability

• Continued stable growth in the production of food, despite geopolitical and climate shocks

  Key statistic: There have been moderate increases in global food production per capita for most food groups between 2019 and 2022: meat (+3.85%), roots and tubers (+2.08%), milk (+1.59%), fruit and vegetables (+1.36%), eggs (+0.77%), and cereals (+0.53%). Total food supply available for human consumption was 2,985 kilocalories per person per day in 2022, increasing by 28 calories from 2019. (see Indicator 1.1.1 Global food production).

• The global trading system in food has also been stable

  Key statistic: The percentage of key global cereals, soybeans and meats traded by volume remains broadly stable with minimal fluctuations between 2021/22 and 2024/25, with the largest changes a 2.4 percentage point (pp) decrease in pigmeat, 1.3pp decrease in maize and 1.7pp increase in the share of beef and veal production traded across this period (see Indicator 1.3.3 Global production internationally traded).

• The number of undernourished people around the world is increasing due to poverty, conflict, climate change as well as issues in food distribution, other growing uses for commodities, and caloric efficiency. This continues a recent trend running counter to a longer-term decrease from 2005 to 2017.

  Key statistic: The number of people facing undernourishment has increased since 2017 from 541 million to 733 million in 2023 (see Indicator 1.4.1 Global food and nutrition security).

• Climate change, nature loss and water insecurity pose significant risks to the ability of global food production to meet demand over the longer term.

  Key statistic: Between 2015 and 2019 the amount of land globally which was reported as being degraded increased by 4.2 pp, from 11.3% to 15.5% (see Indicator 1.5.1 Global land degradation).

• There is weak productivity growth globally which makes this more challenging

  Key statistic: While global agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) grew at an average annual rate of 1.68% from 2003 to 2012, this figure fell to 0.68% for the period between 2013 and 2022. TFP growth has fallen across all country income groups (see Indicator 1.2.1 Global agricultural total factor productivity).

Theme 2: UK Food Supply Sources

• The UK’s overall balance of trade and production is broadly stable. The UK continues to source food from domestic production and trade at around an overall 60:40 ratio.

  Key statistic: The production-to-supply ratio was at 62% for all food and 75% for indigenous foods (meaning those that can be grown in the UK) in 2023, showing a small increase from 61% and 74% in 2021. This is a continuation of the broadly stable trend seen in recent years (see Indicator 2.1.1 Overall sources of UK food).

• Extreme weather events continue to have a significant effect on domestic production, particularly arable crops, fruit and vegetables. Production levels fluctuate each year due to changes in both planted area and yields, with weather conditions having a significant influence among other factors.

  Key statistic: In 2019 UK cereal production (25.5mt) was the highest this century, whereas in 2020 production (19.0mt) was the second lowest largely due to bad weather. The published first estimate of the 2024 English cereal and oilseed harvest shows a 22% decrease (around 2.8mt) in harvested wheat from 2023 (see Indicator 2.1.2 Arable products (grain, oilseed and potatoes)).  

• The UK continues to be highly dependent on imports to meet consumer demand for fruit, vegetables and seafood, which are significant sources of micronutrients for consumers. Many of the countries the UK imports these foods from are subject to their own climate-related challenges and sustainability risks.

  Key statistic: domestic production of fresh fruit increased slightly from 15% of total UK supply in 2021 to 16% in 2023. While this is a continuation of the long-term upward trend from 8% in 2003 it shows ongoing consumer demand for non-indigenous produce (see Indicator 2.1.4 Fruits and vegetables). 

• Long term decline in the UK’s natural capital is a pressing risk to UK food production. Both productivity and sustainability of food production rely on ecosystem services provided by biodiversity, healthy soil and clean water. However, the decline in natural capital is slowing and levelling against some key indicators.

  Key statistic: The all-species indicator in England shows a decline in abundance to just under 70% of the 1970 value. This trend levels around the year 2000 and over the past 5 years, fluctuations in the all-species indicator are not considered to represent meaningful change (see Indicator 2.2.5 Biodiversity). 

Theme 3: Food Supply Chain Resilience

• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused a spike in input costs such as energy and fertiliser. This was a major development of the period between 2021 and 2024, having an effect across the food supply chain. The shock led to business uncertainty and the highest food inflation spike for consumers in 45 years. While the impacts were global, it showed the UK’s and the rest of Europe’s vulnerability to food inflation from high energy prices and the effect of other cost pressures in the system. UK food inflation was among the highest of the G7 countries in 2023. At no point in the last three years has the UK population faced shortages of food items for a sustained period, demonstrating a continued resilience in providing food availability through shocks.   

  Key statistic: Fertiliser costs for UK farms rose from £1.5 billion in 2021 to £2 billion in 2022, before dropping to £1.4 billion in 2023. These changes contrast with a stable level of cost in the decade up to 2020. Similarly, electricity and gas prices climbed far surpassing prices in the period 2014 to 2020, doubling for electricity and nearly tripling for gas (electricity 100%, gas 187%) significantly from mid-2022 (see Indicator 3.1.1. Agricultural Inputs and Indicator 3.1.5 Energy).

• Agri-food sector labour shortages continue and are compounded by significantly more restrictive access to EU labour since freedom of movement with the EU ended in 2021.

  Key statistic: Between 2021 and 2023, the workforce in the food sector in Great Britain increased from 4.04 million to 4.38 million, showing a steady upward trend. However, this does not show shortages in labour and skills in key areas of the UK’s food supply chain such as the seafood sector and the veterinary profession (see Indicator 3.1.3 Labour and skills)

• While there was a sharp fall in volume of imports of Feed Food and Drink  to the UK in 2021, imports have increased slightly since then and the EU remains the UK’s largest external supplier.  

  Key statistic:  The EU accounted for 64% of the volume of UK imports of food, feed and drink in 2023. The volume imported from both the EU and Non-EU countries was 6% lower in 2023 compared to 2018 (see Indicator 3.2.3 Import Flows)

• Single points of failure in food supply chains pose resilience risks with evidence of reliance on regionally concentrated suppliers of supply chain inputs making the UK vulnerable to supplier failure (such as sunflower oil from Ukraine and calcium carbonate from France).

  Key statistic: From 2007 to 2021 UK imports of sunflower oil were broadly stable at around 300,000 tonnes. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, total UK imports of sunflower oil fell to 224,000 in 2023, a 25.3% decrease, creating temporary shortfalls for key processors while driving substitution of other oils, such as rapeseed (see Indicator 3.1.1 Supply Chain Inputs)

• Many food businesses have shown resilience and recovery in response to shocks, but investment levels are not back to levels before the price shock in 2022. 

  Key statistic:  Average total quarterly investment increased by 5.7% in 2023 compared to 2022 but was 21% lower than 2021 levels (see Indicator 3.3.3 Business Resilience).

Theme 4: Household Food Security

• While a large majority of households in the UK continue to be food secure, there has been a notable decrease in food secure households (defined as access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life) which has coincided with increased financial pressures to household budgets from both high general inflation and high food inflation.

  Key statistic: The proportion of food secure households declined from 92% in financial year ending (FYE) 2020 to 90% in FYE 2023 (see Indicator 4.1.1 Household food security status).

• There has been a notable rise in inflation both overall and for the category of food and non-alcoholic beverages since the beginning of 2021. Food price inflation was higher than general inflation and spiked to 45-year highs in 2022 and 2023. Inflation rates are now returning to pre-pandemic levels.

  Key statistic: Over the last three years, inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages peaked in March 2023 at 19.2% while overall inflation peaked in October 2022 at 9.6% (see Indicator 4.1.3 Price changes of main food groups).

• Most people do not meet government dietary recommendations, with those from lower-income groups less likely to meet recommendations than those from the highest-income groups.

  Key statistic: Mean intakes of saturated fat, free sugars and salt exceeded the recommended maximum, and mean intakes of fibre, fruits and vegetables, and oily fish fell below the recommended minimum across adults in 2019. While no income group meets dietary recommendations, those on higher incomes are typically closer to meeting some of the dietary recommendations with the poorest 10% eating on average 42% less fruits and vegetables than recommended, compared to the richest who eat 13% less (see Indicator 4.3.2 Healthy diet).

• Rates of food insecurity vary greatly by demographics, with a notable difference in levels and experiences between income groups. Low-income and disabled groups continue to be at disproportionately high risk of household food insecurity and its potential negative impacts. General inflation including energy price increases have heightened the risk of these households needing to make difficult trade-offs with their food budgets.

  Key statistic: 84% of households with disabled people are classified as food secure compared to 94% for households without disabled people in FYE 2023 (see Indicator 4.1.1 Household food security status).

Theme 5: Consumer Confidence and Food Safety

• The results of UK consumer surveys indicate that the levels of trust in Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) have remained relatively high.

  Key statistic: Consumers’ trust in the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) to ensure that food is safe to eat remains high (>80%) (see Indicator 5.1.1 Consumer Confidence in the Food System and its Regulation).

• There has been an increase in consumers reporting concerns (prompted) about food prices since 2021.

  Key statistic: In 2023, food prices became the top food-related prompted concern among UK consumers. 93% of respondents surveyed in Scotland were concerned about the cost of food. 72% in England, Wales and Northern Ireland highlighted concerns about food prices. Due to differences in data collection, survey results from England, Wales and Northern Ireland cannot be compared with those from Scotland (see Indicator 5.1.2 Consumer Concerns).

• Laboratory confirmed reports of pathogens that can cause foodborne gastrointestinal disease and the proportional trends in foodborne disease outbreak surveillance data generally remained relatively stable over the period 2019 to 2023, with the exception of the COVID-19 pandemic years

  Key statistic: Campylobacter spp. continued to be the most frequently reported bacterial pathogen causing infectious gastrointestinal disease in the UK, followed by non-typhoidal Salmonella spp. The proportional trends in causative agents, hospitalisation rates and associated foods implicated in the investigations were generally consistent with trends observed in the last decade with the exception of STEC/other DEC in 2023. The total number of STEC/other DEC outbreaks and associated cases was notably higher in 2023 compared to previous years (See Indicator 5.2.3 Foodborne pathogen surveillance and Indicator 5.2.4 Foodborne disease outbreak surveillance).

• Of the businesses inspected, analysis indicates an upward trend in food business hygiene compliance. However, there is still a backlog in the number of businesses awaiting inspection.

  Key statistic: Between 2020/21 and 2023/24, an average of 96.8% of food businesses inspected in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland achieved a satisfactory or better Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) rating. An average of 92.3% of inspected businesses in Scotland achieved a ‘Pass’ under the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS) between 2020/21 and 2023/24 (see Indicator 5.3.1 Food business compliance and food hygiene regulation).

‘Whole system’ view

The UKFSR uses an established definition of food security in 6 dimensions (see Introduction). In the recent term the different dimensions of food security (set out in green below) have been affected by a series of shocks. The most disruptive have been from critical sectors on which the food chain is dependent, health (COVID-19) and energy prices (Russia’s invasion of Ukraine). The dimensions have shown recovery from the shocks, but also vulnerabilities in resilience and the persistence of existing stresses in the food system, some of which are intensifying over the longer term such as risks from climate change.

The events of the last 3 years show a trend of high volatility or weakened stability exposing more clearly the interconnected nature of risks, with both the acute and chronic impacts triggering and compounding each other in unexpected ways. The impact of geopolitical and climate events has been to drive up prices of inputs to food production such as energy and fertiliser and food itself. This has created a challenging business environment for the food sector. As a result of the increased costs, food inflation in the UK reached its highest point in 45 years, and was higher than general consumer price inflation compared to 45 years ago. UK food price inflation was among the highest of the G7 economies in 2023, suggesting challenges to UK resilience to price shocks linked to the UK’s energy supply.

There is continued evidence of stabilising factors and resilience in the system from stable production and trade levels, which is a positive trend for food availability. There are also continued high levels of consumer confidence, stable trends in food safety and a return to target levels of overall and food price inflation from the inflation spike in 2022 to 2023. However, food prices remain above pre-2022 levels.

The combination of higher food prices and general inflation caused a rise in household food insecurity in the UK as household budgets were squeezed. Consumers have responded by buying cheaper goods and prioritising price over other factors (such as environment, health, and wider ethical values). Market and supply volatility has therefore weakened access to food and also agency by weakening choice. The impacts of these issues are felt most acutely by particular demographic groups, including those with lower incomes, households with children and those with disabilities. While for the majority a food security issue might mean limitation or reduced choice such as buying less meat, it could mean a significant reduction in food security for vulnerable groups. The continuing trend of most people not meeting UK dietary recommendations demonstrates ongoing issues with utilisation whether that’s through food environment, price, lifestyle, time or educational factors. Food insecurity and hunger is growing globally despite overall increases in production of food per person, showing there are issues beyond supply that are impacting negatively on the availability of food

The impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and water insecurity both at home and abroad remain pressing risks to food security. They drive volatility in the present and put sustainability and resilience of food production at risk over the longer term. These risks are also now interacting with heightened geopolitical tensions. Labour shortages in key sectors at home are also a continuing stress factor affecting domestic food production.

UK Food Security

Food is essential to national life; what and how the UK population eat directly affects the nation’s health, wellbeing, productivity and happiness. It is therefore vital to monitor the UK’s ability to access food and to eat well.

Food is at once a basic necessity and endlessly complex. A loaf of bread has many component parts, all of which are sourced from different regions of the UK and the globe. Even a simple ingredient product such as an apple follows an extensive supply chain and production process before it reaches the market: relying on seeds, water, fertilisers, pesticides, the right weather, labour force for harvesting, biosecurity, cold storage, quality control, not to mention the packaging it might come in, the labelling and the transport required to get it to consumers. Add to that the relationship of people to the food they eat: how they access it financially and physically and prepare and eat it, its impact on their health, their food preferences, allergies and more. What makes us food secure is always an ever-changing relationship between people, nature, animals, markets, nations, infrastructure, culture and more. Monitoring the security of food in the UK therefore means monitoring a whole lot more than the availability of the inputs and raw ingredients that go into food production at a national level.

Security entails stability, resilience, sustainability and the dependable mitigation of risks. But how can security be tracked in such a complex system as the food chain, with variables such as weather, markets, transport, land use, ecology and household income? While food encompasses many aspects, it also comes together as a whole system with clear outcomes. By piecing together trends in key indicators across the UK’s food chain, it is possible to monitor the system and track its health. The UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) is a public instrument for doing this and aims to enable everyone in the UK to understand what drives UK food security and what its current status is.

Scope

The UKFSR is an analysis of statistical data and broader supporting evidence relating to food security in the UK. This UKFSR is the second in a series of reports which are laid in Parliament and published at least once every 3 years under the duty in Section 19 of the Agriculture Act 2020. The last UKFSR was published in December 2021 and this UKFSR reports on data available for the period of 2021 to 2024.

The UKFSR examines past, current, and future trends relevant to food security to present a full and impartial analysis of UK food security. It contains indicators covering different time periods, but always using the latest available data, at the time of writing. Due to time needed to quality assure and publish content, the UKFSR 2024 does not provide analysis of data or factors emerging from the start of October 2024, although it may point readers to new data published in the October-November period where relevant.

The UKFSR is intended as an independent evidence base to inform users rather than a policy or strategy. In practice this means that it provides government, Parliament, food chain stakeholders and the wider public with the data and analysis needed to monitor UK food security and develop effective responses to issues.

The UKFSR draws on a broad range of published data from official, administrative, academic, intergovernmental and wider sources. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the indicators are undertaken to give a full evaluation of the evidence. ‘Qualitative analysis’ refers to ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions that are often answered using evidence obtained from people’s behaviours, perceptions, opinions and motivations.

As an impartial and independent Official Statistics publication, the UKFSR does not offer ministerial views or UK Government positions, nor does it give the position of the UK devolved governments or their ministers. It assesses a wide range of different trends affecting food security in the recent and long term and, while it does pull those trends into a single narrative, the reader is left to make their own judgments on overall UK food security based on the evidence. This means that UKFSR gives a mixed picture as it reports on both positive and negative trends, but it will always make it clear what dimensions of food security these trends affect so that the analysis remains coherent rather than contradictory.

As required by the Agriculture Act 2020, the UKFSR updates its food security evidence base on a 3- yearly basis. The UKFSR examines developments and risks arising within the t3 years, and whether they indicate stability, deterioration or improvement and whether they are long-term one-offs. While the 3 years are the primary focus, the UKFSR aims to place evidence in an appropriate timescale, including considering the evolution of trends over the longer term. To support comparison of data, some of the themes have flexibly applied a default 20 year timescale to graphs, depending on fit with the data and available years.

There have been improvements to the evidence base in the UKFSR 2024 as result of consultation with a range of experts and stakeholders. See Annex I for a description of the consultation process and changes to the indicators as presented in the UKFSR 2021.

Defining food security

While there are many definitions of food security, the UKFSR uses the widely used 1996 World Food Summit definition which defines food security in broad terms as:

“when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”

There are many interacting factors that shape and determine the stable relationship between people and food at the core of this definition (such as physical, economic, dietary and ecological). Food security therefore cannot be reduced to a single metric or concept. It is complex and multi-faceted.

To capture the range of factors affecting food security the UKFSR approaches food security through 5 themes, dedicating a chapter to each. The 5 themes offer a systems approach that not only measures people’s access to food, but the health of the various interconnected systems enabling that access. Each theme sets out a range of indicators that are considered in relation to each other and further supporting evidence. The 5 themes and the scope for each are:

1. Global Food Availability: supply and demand at a global level, including distribution, sustainability and dietary value of food.

2. UK Food Supply Sources: where the UK gets its food from across domestic production and imports and the sustainability of those sources

3. Food Supply Chain Resilience: the physical, human and economic infrastructure underlying the supply chain and the UK’s ability to respond to shocks to the supply chain

4. Food Security at Household Level: the ability of households to access sufficient, healthy and affordable food

5. Food safety and Consumer Confidence: public perceptions and how we monitor the safety and authenticity of food in the UK

While the UKFSR is structured around the 5 themes, the indicators within them are relevant to the 4 dimensions associated with the World Food Summit definition of food security: availability, access, utilisation of food, stability. To recognise the evolving understanding of food security, the UKFSR considers 2 additional dimensions of food security (4 + 2): sustainability and agency. These were suggested by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition. The indicators included in the UKFSR give substantive coverage of each of the 6 dimensions, while coverage of the elements within the dimensions is varying. The elements with greater coverage are production, distribution, affordability, food safety and nutritional value. There is less coverage of social value, preference and allocation. Food security can also be understood as the stability of these different dimensions. (see Annex II for an explanation of the dimensions and elements).

The above ‘systems’ approach exposes the way that food security variables interact across different systems. The UKFSR 2024 has enhanced this aspect of the analysis by bringing in a wider range of areas into its analysis of indicators and doing more to link between themes and indicators.

Climate analysis

This edition of the UKFSR offers a more developed and integrated analysis of climate impacts on food security. In recognition of climate’s impacts across sectors, the impact of climate has been more integrated across indicators rather than being a single indicator as it was in 2021’s edition. This includes additional analyses of potential future climate impacts for different sectors over the short and long term provided by the Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services.

Weather and climate are both drivers of food security. Over the period 2014 to 2023, warming at the global scale attributed to human influence has been at a rate of 0.26°C (0.2-0.4°C) per decade, which was faster than previous decades. 2015-2023 were the nine warmest individual years on record.

Rising global average temperatures bring increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The year 2023 was the hottest year on record by a large margin for both air temperatures and sea surface temperatures. During 2021 to 2023, the world experienced a number of record-breaking extreme weather events resulting in loss of life, destruction of property, large-scale air pollution and negative consequences for food production. Record-breaking events included Canada’s worst national wildfire season, Mexico’s driest year, extreme heat and drought in China, the USA’s largest drought event and heatwaves in North America and the Mediterranean. The UK experienced one of its hottest and driest summers in 2022 and in England it was the wettest 18-month period on record between September 2022 to February 2024.

Rising temperatures may in some cases hold opportunities for growing new crops (e.g. expansion of vineyards in the UK) and for a longer growing season. However, the climate analyses presented suggest that rising temperatures will increase the variability of weather, and increase the likelihood of extreme weather events, which represent significant overall risks to UK food security. This volatile context endangers the stability of several key pillars of food security such as availability and access. However, there are a variety of evidence gaps that complicate making a fully consistent, comprehensive, quantitative assessment of these risks to every element of the food system.

Predominantly, the climate commentary is based on evidence considering the RCP8.5/SSP5-8.5 (high forcing / low mitigation) and RCP2.6/SSP1-2.6 (low forcing / high mitigation) scenarios. Most policy-relevant research has previously used RCP8.5/SSP5-8.5, meaning there are more research findings to draw on when using this scenario. The inclusion of findings for RCP2.6/SSP1-2.6 provides additional understanding of how outcomes may vary depending on mitigation actions (see Annex III for explanation of the climate scenarios).

Delivery of the UKFSR

The UKFSR fulfils a duty under Part 2, Chapter 1 (Section 19) of the Agriculture Act 2020 to prepare and lay before Parliament “a report containing an analysis on statistical data relating to food security in the United Kingdom”. 

The production of this report is the responsibility of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It has been produced in collaboration with relevant officials in the devolved governments, and with UK food safety bodies. An area as all-encompassing as food security touches on a wide range of government bodies. Agricultural and food supply policy is devolved to each national government. As lead departments for food as a Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) sector, Defra and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) manage risks specifically relating to National Security and Counter Terrorism across the UK. For all other areas of risk, food supply chain resilience and security are the responsibility of Defra in England; DAERA and the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland; the Scottish Government in Scotland; and the Welsh Government in Wales. The FSA is responsible for food safety and for protecting consumers and industry from food crime in supply chains in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. Food Standards Scotland are responsible for food safety, promoting healthy eating and food crime in Scotland.

The UKFSR is produced in compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and any deviations from the code (e.g. publishing at 10:30am rather than 9:30 am) have been approved via the Defra Head of Profession for Statistics with the UK Statistics Authority. Indicators throughout were chosen due to meeting data quality requirements, being relevant to the subject, and cumulative (that is each adds some unique insight to the subject under consideration)

How to read the UKFSR

As noted above food security is the combination of 5 themes in the UKFSR. No one theme can be read as fully representing UK food security. The reader should look across the themes to understand UK food security.

Each theme of the UKFSR begins with an introduction, which sets out the broader context and reasoning behind the theme, and a summary, which provides the headline conclusions. Each theme is made up of indicators, each of which sets out a specific metric or dataset relating to food security. Some indicators are supported by case studies where it is felt that additional evidence and contexts adds value.

Each indicator has a rationale section explaining why the indicator has been included and the data underpinning it. This is followed by a headline evidence section that describes trends for the headline dataset under the indicator and what this means for food security. A supporting evidence section puts the headline evidence in the context of related trends and longer timeframes to guide the reader to a deeper understanding of the indicator and how it fits within UK food security. Where there is an observable past or future food security trend in the data, the analysis will articulate it. These 3 sections are a restructuring of the 2021 indicator analysis. The aim of this restructuring is to enhance accessibility and usability by introducing a clearer definition of the headline statistic and supporting statistics. The indicator is combination of the headline statistic being assessed in the headline evidence and the supporting evidence in line with the UKFSR’s multi-faceted and ‘systems’ approach to food security. Additional methodology notes are included in Annex IV. Alongside the annexes there is a glossary to support understanding technical terms.

The UKFSR is designed to update on indicators in previous reports. In some cases indicators have been renamed and grouped with other indicators as part of enhancing the evidence base. To support readers with comparing the findings of indicators to their findings in the UKFSR 2021, Annex I provides a table mapping the 2024 indicators to the 2021 indicators.

About the UK Food Security Report

The UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) sets out an analysis of statistical data relating to food security in the UK. It fulfils a duty under Part 2, Chapter 1 (Section 19) of the Agriculture Act 2020 to prepare and lay before Parliament at least once every three years “a report containing an analysis on statistical data relating to food security in the United Kingdom”.

The UKFSR examines past, current, and future trends relevant to food security to present a full and impartial analysis of UK food security. It draws on a broad range of published data from official, administrative, academic, intergovernmental and wider sources.

The UKFSR is intended as an independent evidence base to inform users rather than a policy or strategy. In practice this means that it provides government, Parliament, food chain stakeholders and the wider public with the data and analysis needed to monitor UK food security and develop effective responses to issues.

Contact and feedback

Enquiries to: foodsecurityreport@defra.gov.uk

You can also contact us via Twitter/X: @DefraStats

We want to understand the uses that readers make of this report. To help us ensure that future versions are better for you, please answer our short questionnaire to send us feedback.

What we will do with this data

Production team: Michael Archer, Lewis Bird, Jess Booth, Jane Brown, Rebecca Clutterbuck, Grant Davies, Simon Dixon, Nikita Driver, Tom George, Gayle Griffiths, Evangeline Hopper, Helen Jamieson, Ronald Kasoka, Matt Keating, Sarath Kizhakkoott, Gurjeevan Landa, Rachel Latham, David Lee, James LePage, Ian Lonsdale, Claire Manley (FSA), Eszter Palotai, Maria Prokopiou, Erica Pufall (FSA), Alexis Rampa, Lewis Ratcliffe, Leigh Riley, Karen Robertson (FSS), Danny Roff, William Ryle-Hodges, Daniel Scott, Chris Silwood, Swati Singh (FSA), Carine Valarche, Maisie Wilson, Isabella Worth

Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful to the following for their expert contributions and guidance throughout the synthesis of this Report, helping to ensure it delivers a thorough analysis of a robust evidence base:

• Professor Angelina Sanderson Bellamy, University of the West of England Bristol

• Professor Tim Benton, Chatham House

• Dr Tom D. Breeze, University of Reading

• Dr Jonathan Brooks, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Exeter Business School

• Professor Katrina Campbell, Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast

• Professor Bob Doherty (Dean and Principal Investigator of FixOurFood), School for Business and Society, University of York

• Selvarani Elahi MBE, UK Deputy Government Chemist, LGC

• Dr Pete Falloon, Met Office/University of Bristol

• Professor Lynn Frewer, Centre for Rural Economy, Newcastle University

• Dr Kenisha Garnett, Cranfield University

• Professor Emeritus Peter J. Gregory, School of Agriculture, Policy & Development, University of Reading

• Dr Saher Hasnain, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford

• Alan Hayes, Strategic Advisor, Future Strategy

• Dr John Ingram, Food Systems Transformation Programme, University of Oxford

• Professor Peter Jackson, Institute for Sustainable Food, University of Sheffield

• Professor Alexandra Johnstone, The Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen

• Dr Hannah Lambie-Mumford, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield

• Dr Marta Lonnie, The Rowett Institute, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition, University of Aberdeen

• Dr Rachel Loopstra, Department of Public Health, Policy and Systems, University of Liverpool

• Dr Katie McDermott, University of Leeds

• Dr Ian Noble, Chair of UK Food Sector Advisory Group – Innovate UK

• Dr Kelly Parsons, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge

• Dr Maddy Power (Assistant Professor), Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, Department of Health Sciences, University of York

• Dr Michelle Thomas, University of Reading

• Professor Carol Wagstaff, University of Reading

Continue to Theme 1: Global Food Availability

Annexes

Glossary and Acronyms

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