Food and You is a random probability survey comprising around 3,000 interviews across the UK at each wave, with boosted samples in Scotland, Northern Ireland and, at Wave 3, Wales. The survey is designed to explore reported behaviours, attitudes, and knowledge surrounding food safety issues, and nutrition in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and is an important vehicle for measuring progress against the FSA’s Strategic Plan to 2015, and beyond.
Previous waves of Food and You have each been reported in a single UK publication, with separate reports for Scotland and Northern Ireland. The three waves of data collection offer scope for in-depth analysis, utilising both time series, and larger subgroups (through combining the samples from the three waves). For the next, and potentially future waves, we are therefore adopting a different approach to analysis and reporting.
Fieldwork for Wave 3 will be completed in August 2014 and the fieldwork supplier will produce an initial report of descriptive statistics. The data analysis and reporting project will consist of conducting further, more detailed data analysis, including, but not limited to, exploration of variation between subgroups. Interpretation of the results, including embedding the findings in the current literature, will be a key aspect of this project and findings should be considered in depth.
It is expected that a series of working papers on different issues will be produced at each wave as an outcome of this project. These papers will include interpretation of how the results generally, and in respect to food safety, relate to the current social scientific literatures on the relevant topics covered by the survey (eg beliefs about dirt/cleanliness, self-reported food allergies, eating out), and the implications of the findings to the existing evidence base.
We require an iterative process for this project allowing for regular input from the FSA. The project will also involve a number of workshops, which will complement the release of each working paper and aim to present and disseminate analysis results on each issue and encourage stakeholder engagement. It is anticipated that a workshop and paper addressing different research questions/issues will be produced every 2–3 months, with analysis and reporting for each wave being 9–12 months in duration.