12. Evidence from Stakeholders: Key Concerns
12.1 When considering this advice on the UK-India CETA it is helpful to outline the broader context around consumer perspectives and stakeholder concerns. The FSA and FSS, in parallel with the TAC, issued an open Call for Evidence on 1st August 2025, inviting submissions from interested parties regarding statutory protections for food safety and nutrition. This consultation remained open for eight weeks. We received nine submissions and held multiple discussions before the submission of the advice with stakeholders as part of the FSA’s and FSS’s ongoing engagement activities. We are grateful to all respondents who took the time to submit their contribution, you can find a summary of these in Annex I of this report. Relevant contributions which involve statutory protections for human health or are of particular interest to the public have been incorporated into our advice and views are summarised below.
12.2 Food Production standards:
Stakeholders highlighted significant disparities in production methods, including the use by producers in India of antibiotics, pesticides and intensive farming practices that are banned in the UK. These differences, they argue, give Indian imports an unfair competitive advantage and threaten the viability of UK sectors such as dairy and beef. Other key concerns are that allergen and nutrition labelling are not considered to be as comprehensive as UK labelling.
Fera Science Ltd stressed the need for enhanced UK testing infrastructure to manage the anticipated rise in high-risk imports, particularly spices, processed foods, and aquaculture products, calling for assurances that UK standards will be upheld through robust surveillance and testing capacity.
12.3 Dairy and eggs
Stakeholders expressed concern that India, being the largest producer of milk from cows and buffaloes globally, has the capacity to export significant volumes of dried milk powder and dried egg products to the UK, which could pose a long-term risk to domestic dairy producers. They claim that imports of dairy and egg products may be produced using methods that are not permitted in the UK and are not aligned with UK’s animal welfare standards. These include the use of antibiotics for growth promotion.
12.4 Pesticides
Stakeholders including Pesticide Action Network (PAN) UK, warned that the UK–India CETA could pose significant risks to UK food safety due to weaker pesticide standards in India. They highlight that Indian Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) for pesticides are often far higher than those permitted in Great Britain.
PAN UK also points out that Indian food exports have a history of being rejected due to pesticide contamination, with basmati rice being particularly problematic. They argue that UK border controls and domestic testing capacity are insufficient to detect and prevent contaminated imports, especially given the limited scope of automatic testing and the small number of samples tested annually.
Furthermore, PAN UK expresses concern over the SPS Chapter of the CETA, which promotes recognition of Indian standards as “equivalent” and encourages reliance on international benchmarks like Codex, which are generally less stringent than UK regulations. They warn that the agreement lacks reference to the precautionary principle and could allow industry pressure to weaken UK protections via the proposed SPS Subcommittee.
12.5 Consumers’ attitudes toward food standards and trade
In addition to consulting stakeholders through our Call for Evidence, FSA and FSS monitor consumers’ preferences and attitudes in relation to food. Consumers are concerned about standards of food coming from outside the UK, and levels of concern have increased since EU Exit,[1][2].
[1] Citizens’ views on the EU and food issues (March 2021 wave)
[2] UK Public’s Interests, Needs and Concerns Around Food | Food Standards Agency
Research conducted by the FSA has consistently found that consumers are much more concerned about food produced outside the UK being safe and hygienic, and what it says it is, compared to food produced in the UK [3][4].[5]
[3] Food and You 2: Wave 9 | Food Standards Agency
[4] Consumer Insights Tracker | Food Standards Agency
[5] Food in Scotland Consumer Tracker Survey Wave 19 | Food Standards Scotland
In line with this, consumers who opposed FTAs with non-EU counties are most likely to cite lower standards of safety and food as their top reason.
The majority of UK consumers believe maintaining UK food standards is non-negotiable, even if this comes at the expense of international trade deals and higher food prices. In 2021 Which? research, only 4% of consumers said food produced to lower standards should be allowed into the UK but with a higher tariff/import tax. This view was also supported by consumers who took part in detailed discussions (via a series of public dialogues) though rejecting the idea of having two different tariffs for food produced to different standards. For these consumer groups, these factors have much higher priority than providing greater choice and competition to UK consumers.
As research has found that consumers believe maintaining UK food standards is non-negotiable, it is likely that consumers would have concerns around an FTA with India given the country’s differing food standards. A survey carried out by Red Tractor in 2022 found only 18% of UK consumers trusted food produced in India, versus 73% who trusted food produced in the UK. Of the 20 countries people were asked about, only China has lower consumer trust than India. When asked about preferred sources for importing meat and dairy products, only 2% of UK consumers chose India—making it the least preferred country, even below China, which was selected by 3%.
It is clear from this evidence that maintaining food safety and health standards in trade deals is important to consumers and stakeholders and that there are widely held concerns about standards of some foods from India as shown in the research above.