Adobe StockRising numbers of food safety visits to businesses in Dundee are being delayed as the council battles with staff shortages and rising demand.
The local authority’s food safety team is responsible for preventing food poisoning and illness by ensuring food and drink intended for sale in the city are produced, stored, distributed, handled and consumed safely.
Each year, it plans a series of ‘interventions’ to inspect and monitor how nearly 1,500 food businesses in Dundee are complying with the law.
Businesses being monitored include 300 retailers, 291 restaurants/cafes, 206 takeaways and 171 pubs/clubs.
Nearly 1,000 visits were scheduled by the food safety team last year.
But only 91% of these were carried out on time – a drop of 97% from the previous year.
This meant 67 planned visits did not happen during 2025-26.
The report reveals the food safety team was one worker short for the year, with staff working additional overtime hours to get through the workload.
The team received 162 food-related complaints last year, including 146 relating to food hygiene conditions in businesses.
Nearly 400 requests for safety advice were also received.
This, the report says, represents a “continued increase in demand on the service”.
More than 260 reported cases of food poisoning
Meanwhile, the number of reports of food poisoning has risen in the last three years – though this is put down to improved detection rates.
The number of reported cases of food poisoning since 2020 is as follows:
- 2020 – 170
- 2021 – 124
- 2022 – 167
- 2023 – 265
- 2024 – 262
- 2025 – 261
The report also highlights how all of the current food safety service staff are aged over 50.
This means the council must “give consideration to (addressing) workforce planning” over the next three years.
The report will be presented to councillors in Dundee next week.
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