Food sampling

Scottish local authority environmental health departments carry out food sampling, as part of their enforcement of UK food law. Samples are submitted for analysis by appointed public analysts or food examiners at official laboratories designated by Food Standards Scotland.  

Samples are collected by local authority officers from a variety of food premises in Scotland for enforcement and investigation purposes, as well as for surveillance and monitoring. At the laboratories samples are subject to microbiological examination, chemical testing (including nutritional, contaminants, authenticity and allergen testing) and labelling analysis.

Food sampling by local authorities currently provides the main surveillance mechanism for assessing the safety and authenticity of foods placed on the market. It generates valuable evidence to support risk assessment and the targeting of further surveillance and enforcement activities.

In addition to routine sampling activities carried out by local authorities, we also fund them to carry out additional food sampling through a targeted surveillance programme. We fund work to tackle key and emerging food safety issues, helping ensure food in Scotland is safe and authentic.

We set yearly grant priorities based on data from the Scottish Food Sampling Database (SFSD), our Horizon scanning, and input from local authorities and partners like the Food Standards Agency. This supports targeted, risk-based sampling and continues to address recommendations from the 2013 Scudamore Report.

Read the Food sampling surveillance programme 2024/25

Read the Food sampling surveillance programme 2023/24

Read the Food sampling surveillance programme 2022/23

We fund surveys, delivered by external contractors, to help us understand the risks linked to food products in Scotland. We choose which foods to focus on based on what we currently need to know and where there are gaps in our understanding of the risks.

The results help us understand the risks linked to certain products and guides future risk assessments. Take a look at our survey reports in the Science and evidence section.