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FOI release

FOI – 2025-000165 Food related incidents (HTML)

Published on 26 June 2025

Date received – 06 June 2025 | Date responded – 26 June 2025

Request

Please could you provide information on details of food related incidents that have been reported within/towards/attributed to catering assets/outlets within your portfolio, for the period 2024 as a result of:

  • breaches in operating procedures 
  • allergen/intolerance errors
  • cross contamination
  • under cooked/raw
  • foreign objects
  • poor supply chain

Please also provide details and corrective actions around any incident.

Response

I refer to your freedom of information request that we received on 06 June 2025 requesting the following information.

We have now completed the search of our records and can provide you with the following information:

  • breaches in operating procedures
  • allergen/intolerance errors
  • cross contamination
  • under cooked/raw

Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), an organisation is not required to provide information it does not hold. NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) can confirm there have been no incidents reported to National Procurement (NP) during the specified period. We would suggest that you contact each of the NHSScotland Health Boards who may be able to provide the requested information using the emails listed below, as under the terms of FOISA we are unable to transfer this request on your behalf.

There have been 2 foreign body complaints received by NP; these are as follows:

Blue paper found within a pie that was served to a patient at mealtime – the patient ate the product, left the blue paper on the plate with no complaint made.

Dirt like matter found in carrots and leeks.

Both incidents were investigated and root cause not found due to the hospital not retaining the products for uplift. All procedures were checked and all suppliers to NHSScotland must have certification such as British Retail Consortium Global Standards (BRCGS), Safe and Local Supplier Approval (SALSA). These are also audited by Micron2.

  • poor supply chain

Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), an organisation is not required to provide information it does not hold. NSS does not hold information on food related incidents because of poor supply chain. However, we are aware that all suppliers have been impacted by shortages in the supply chain over the last few years due to various reason such as conflict in the Red Sea, War and adverse weather.

I trust you will find the information of assistance and if you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of how we have dealt with your request, you can make representations to us asking us to review the handling of your request.

If you require any further information, please contact the Associate Director Governance and Board Services (Board Secretary) within 40 working days of the date of this correspondence.

Contact

Email: nss.foi@nhs.scot

Address

NHS National Services Scotland
Headquarters
Gyle Square
1 South Gyle Crescent
Edinburgh
EH12 9EB

If after a review you are still unhappy, you also have the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner, who can be contacted at Kinburn Castle, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS, or via their application form.

National Services Scotland (NSS) is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. You can view all FOI responses within our FOI Publications repository.

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