Consumer Insights Tracker - April to June 2026 Report
1. Key findings
Key findings for April to June 2026:
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Food affordability: The proportion who reported worrying about their household not being able to afford food increased slightly from 19% in February 26 to 26% in May 26, and remained comparable in June 26 (24%).
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Money saving behaviours: In June 26, when prompted with a list of money-saving behaviours, eating food past its use by date (60%) and eating leftovers kept for over two days (59%) remained the most commonly reported.
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Food concerns: In June 26, food prices (91%) remained the top concern among respondents when prompted, followed by ultra-processed food (78%) and the quality of food (76%). In May 26, concern for food shortages reached its highest level (62%) since tracking began for this topic in April 25 (54%). It then fell slightly to 58% in June 26 but remained higher than almost all previous months.
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Food Standards Agency (FSA): Among those with some knowledge of the FSA, the proportion who said they trust the FSA to do its job increased slightly from April (60%) to May 26 (64%), before remaining at a similar level in June 26 (63%). This was broadly consistent with the previous quarter.
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Cannabidiol (CBD): In June 26, 8% of respondents reported they had consumed CBD in the last 6 months. This was consistent with December 25 (10%) when these questions were last asked, but a slight decline from when tracking began for this topic in December 24 (12%).
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Cell-cultivated products: Views on sale of cell-cultivated meat, willingness to include in diet, and confidence in regulation remain mixed, with a sizeable minority saying they ‘don’t know’. For example, In June 26 43% of respondents said that cell-cultivated meat should not be on sale in the UK in the future, and 35% said it should. 22% were unsure. This pattern is consistent with previous months.
2. Background and methodological information
2.1. Survey topics
This report presents findings for topics we track regularly including consumer concerns in relation to food, food affordability, and trust in the FSA as a regulator.
The core questions in this survey underwent review before the launch of the April 2025 survey. Some new questions and/or statements were introduced, resulting in a new timeseries for some questions/ statements. Please see the notes on each slide for further information.
Between April and June 2026, questions were also asked about consumer views on cell-cultivated products (April), Anti-microbial resistance (May), Raw milk (June), CBD products (June), and Sanitary and Phytosanitary negotiations (June).
Findings on cell-cultivated products and CBD products can be found in this report.
Data for all questions can be found in the accompanying data tables.
2.2. Method
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This research was conducted online using the YouGov panel which gives access to 400,000 active panel members in the UK.
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This report presents findings from April–June 2026. Where appropriate, comparisons are made to previous waves since July 2023.
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Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland 2,109 people took part in the survey in April (2nd-6th), 2,155 in May (1st-4th) and 2,197 in June (5th-8th).
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Quotas were set by age, gender, social grade, education and region. The data is also weighted to be representative of the population by these demographic variables. All results are based on final weighted data.
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In June 2026, the sampling and weighting approach was updated to include ethnicity. Comparability tests were conducted and the impact on tracking was determined to be minimal. However, this methodological change should be considered when comparing June 2026 onwards with previous waves.
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Further details on the methodology including strengths and limitations can be found in our technical report.
2.3. Notes for interpretation
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Reporting convention (↑ / ↓ on graphs): The Consumer Insights Tracker uses t-tests to assess differences over time and between groups, and highlights those where the p value is <0.05. Due to the quota sampling methodology used this is not an exact test of whether differences are statistically significant and indicative of real changes in wider population. However, they may highlight where there could be shifts in behaviour or attitudes and further research would be required to assess if these changes are real.
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Online panel survey: As respondents are selected from an online panel, people without internet access are not represented.
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Percentages: Figures may not add up to 100% on graphs due to figures being rounded to the nearest whole number, or because in some questions, respondents were able to select multiple answers. In some cases, rounding may make changes appear smaller or larger than they are in the underlying data. Statistical tests have been conducted using the unrounded figures.
3. Results
3.1. Food affordability
Figure 1 shows the proportion of respondents who reported worrying about their household not being able to afford food increased slightly from 19% in February 26 to 26% in May 26, before remaining comparable in June 26 (24%).
In June 26, when asked to select from a list of money-saving behaviours, eating food past its use by date (60%) and eating leftovers kept for over two days (59%) remained the most commonly reported, as shown in Figure 2. The proportion who reported these behaviours declined slightly over the quarter.
3.2. Food concerns
Figure 3 shows food prices (91%) remained the top prompted concern among respondents in June 26, followed by ultra-processed food (78%) and the quality of food (76%).
In May 26, concern about food shortages reached its highest level (62%) since tracking began for this topic in April 25 (54%). Concern dropped slightly to 58% in June, but this remains higher than almost all previous months.
3.3. The Food Standards Agency
Figure 4 shows that among respondents with some knowledge of the FSA, trust in the FSA to do its job increased slightly from April (60%) to May 26 (64%) and then remained stable between May (64%) and June 26 (63%). This was broadly consistent with the previous quarter (60%-62%).
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3.4. Food safety topics
As shown in Figure 5, ‘recall of food products’ remained the most commonly recalled topic in June 26, with 28% of respondents saying they had seen, read, or heard something about it in the past month. This was a slight decrease from 31% in May 26.
Food hygiene ratings followed closely behind, reported by 27% of respondents in June, also a slight decrease from May 26 (30%).
In June 26, respondents most commonly said they had seen, read or heard something about any of these topics in the news (49%), on social media (37%) and via word of mouth (27%)[1]. This was consistent across the quarter.
3.5. Cannabidiol (CBD)
In June 26, 8% of respondents reported consuming CBD in the last 6 months, consistent with December 25 (10%) – when these questions were last asked (see Figure 6). However, there has been a slight decrease since these questions were first asked in December 24 (12%). Between December 25 (22%) and June 26 (26%) there was also a slight increase in the proportion who don’t know whether they have consumed CBD.
Figure 8 shows that among those that said they had consumed CBD in the last 6 months, the most common ways of deciding on a suitable dose remained following the instructions on the packaging or label (52%), and by monitoring the effect it has on them (25%). This was comparable to previous waves.
In June 26, respondents who said they had consumed CBD in the last 6 months were most likely to report they had consumed drinks (63%) and oils (55%) containing CBD. Respondents were more likely to say they consume oils most days or everyday (17%) than drinks (8%) (see Figure 9).
Respondents were least likely to report they had consumed food containing CBD (31%).
3.6. Cell-cultivated products
Figure 10 shows that when prompted with a definition of each term, respondents in April 26 continued to be more familiar with lab-grown meat (75%), than cell-cultivated meat (50%) and cell-cultivated products (49%). While these were all comparable to October 25 when these questions were last asked, awareness of all terms has decreased slightly in comparison to April 25.
Views on sale of cell-cultivated meat, willingness to include in diet, and confidence in regulation remain mixed, with a sizeable minority saying they ‘don’t know’ (see Figures 11, 12 and 13). For example, in June 2026 43% of respondents said that cell-cultivated meat should not be on sale in the UK in the future, and 35% said it should. 22% were unsure. This pattern is consistent with previous months.
When prompted with a list of potential benefits and concerns about cell-cultivated meat, the most common benefit in April 26 was seen to be animal welfare (47%), and the top concern was about it being safe to eat (52%). The most common perceived benefits and concerns have remained consistent between waves (see Figures 14 and 15).
Further information
For more information:
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Visit our Consumer Insights Tracker webpage
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Contact the FSA’s Analytics Unit
Acknowledgements
FS code FS900280
NEWC2. In the past month, where have you seen, read or heard something about these food safety topics? Base: All those who have seen, read or heard of any information about the food safety topics in June 2026 (n=1,242), May (n=1,264), April (n=1,210). Note: Multiple responses allowed. As a result, percentages do not total 100%.