More than 5,200 consumer complaints about food safety were submitted to a dedicated service in Belgium in 2024. The Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC) consumer contact point received 5,222 complaints. This is up from 4,865 complaints in 2023.
In 2024, 21 complaints per working day were received. FASFC said this demonstrates that food safety is a major concern among consumers. Approximately one-third of complaints fell under the hygiene category.
These are from people who have concerns about the general cleanliness of an establishment, staff hygiene, or the presence of pests. The second largest group of reports is from people who have become ill and believe this is because of consumption of a particular food. Concerns relating to storage methods came in third.
Handling of complaints and questions FASFC, also known as AFSCA or FAVV, considers complaints to be important signals of potential food safety problems so they are handled as a priority by inspectors, who visit the implicated site. More than 90 percent of complaints were handled by FASFC within 30 days. In 49 percent of inspections undertaken following a consumer message, the issues raised were found to be justified.
Also, in 6 percent of inspections, violations other than those mentioned in the complaint were found. The contact point also deals with questions. In 2024, 4,322 questions were submitted, equating to 17 per working day.
Questions cover a range of topics such as information on labels, the.