Statistics

The Food Standards Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network publishes statistics on the register of food businesses, on inspections and their outcomes, on food alerts and recalls, and on the capacity of its inspection programme. This first release covers the transition period from 10 August to 5 September 2026, during which member organisations transferred their food hygiene functions to the Office, and records the position at establishment on 6 September 2026.

The figures are drawn from the registrations and inspection reports made under the interim arrangements, from the alerts register, and from returns supplied by member organisations. Figures for the transition period are provisional and will be revised in later releases where late returns are received or where an outcome is changed on review.

The position at establishment. The figures below record the Office at the point of establishment.

1,284

Food businesses on the register at establishment

218

Inspections carried out during the transition period

85%

Inspected businesses found compliant or broadly compliant

5

Food alerts issued, of which 3 concerned undeclared allergens

The register. The table below shows the businesses on the register on 6 September 2026 by principal site and by risk category. Businesses at other locations are counted against the principal site from which they are inspected. Category A comprises manufacturers, processors, caterers serving vulnerable groups and businesses handling raw meat, fish or shellfish for sale ready to eat; category D comprises retailers of ambient prepacked food only. The Office estimates that around 400 businesses operating before 6 September have yet to register.

Inspections during the transition. The 218 inspections carried out under the interim arrangements were directed at the higher-risk categories and at businesses about which reports had been received, so the proportion found to require improvement is higher than the Office expects across the register as a whole. Both prohibitions were lifted within the transition period after the matters found were put right.

The matters most often recorded at inspection are shown below. A single inspection may record more than one matter. The two most frequent, incomplete temperature records and the absence of allergen information for food sold loose, are the subjects of the Office's first advisory notes to businesses and of the requirement, from 1 October 2026, that written allergen information be available at every business selling food loose.

Alerts and recalls. Five alerts were issued during the transition period. The time to closure is measured from the issue of the alert to the date the Office recorded it closed; the alert issued on 3 September 2026 remains in force and is excluded from the average.

Capacity from September 2026. The figures below record the capacity the Office has established for its first months of operation. The inspection programme by site, with the date on which inspections begin and the inspectors assigned, is set out on the Inspection page.

26

Authorised inspectors assigned across the six principal sites

620

Inspections scheduled between 14 September and 31 December 2026

142

Category A businesses, each to be inspected by 31 March 2027

10

Working days within which registration is confirmed

The Office will publish statistics quarterly. The next release, covering the period from establishment to 31 December 2026, will be published in January 2027 and announced in the Newsroom. It will report the position on registration after the deadline of 30 September 2026, the outcomes of the inspection programme by site and category, and every alert issued. For the milestones of the reporting cycle, see History. Questions about these figures may be sent to contact@food.gov.vin.