Dubai-style chocolates were among the worst performing products in the Food Standards Agency’s new retail surveillance programme, with only one of 45 samples passing every check carried out.
Between July and December 2025, the FSA sampled 845 products from national supermarkets, independent retailers and online sellers. The survey targeted products in areas of known or potential risk to ensure they were safe, accurately labelled and contained what they claimed to.
Overall, 72% of samples were satisfactory, the report showed. The FSA said most of the food tested was “safe and authentic”, but the survey revealed some labelling and authenticity failures in Dubai-style chocolate and goat meat products.
A total of 45 Dubai-style chocolates were purchased and tested for undeclared allergens, mycotoxins and unauthorised colours, alongside a comprehensive labelling assessment.
The products were sourced primarily from smaller brands and imported ranges. Of the samples tested, 36 had a known country of origin outside the UK, including 22 from Turkey and nine from the UAE.
Just one chocolate was found to be compliant across all tests and labelling requirements, the report revealed.
Undeclared allergens were identified in 18 chocolates. Three samples contained both undeclared peanut and sesame, 11 contained undeclared peanut only and four contained undeclared sesame only.
A total of eight samples exceeded legal limits for mycotoxins, including aflatoxins and ochratoxin A, while 42 of 45 samples had labelling problems, including missing allergen information, missing importer details and incorrect ingredient declarations.
Last year, the FSA acted early on preliminary results from the survey relating to Dubai-style chocolate. In December, the agency warned people with allergies not to eat Dubai-style chocolate due to the presence of undeclared allergens, and it also recalled a Dubai-style chocolate bar due to undeclared peanuts.
Commenting on results of the survey, Rebecca Sudworth, director of policy at the FSA, said: “When we found that the majority of Dubai-style products did not pass our stringent Food safety checks, we took immediate action, alerting local authorities to work with businesses and industry groups to make sure the products they sell are safe and correctly labelled.”
Results ‘must serve as a wake-up call’
Around 6% of UK adults are estimated to have a clinically confirmed food allergy, while more than a third report experiencing some form of adverse reaction to certain foods, according to FSA data [Patterns and Prevalence of Adult Food Allergy, 2024].
Natasha’s Foundation founder Nadim Ednan-Laperouse said these results “must serve as a wake-up call”.
“The discovery of hidden peanut, sesame, milk and egg in some products poses a life-threatening risk to people with food allergy,” he told The Grocer.
Ednan-Laperouse’s daughter, Natasha, died aged 15 after suffering a fatal allergic reaction to a sandwich that failed to declare sesame as an ingredient.
Natasha’s Law has transformed food safety by requiring full ingredient and allergen labelling on food prepacked for direct sale, but these findings “show there is still more to do”, said Ednan-Laperouse.
“People with food allergy need clear, consistent allergen information wherever they buy food, including online and through social commerce platforms, so they can make safe, informed choices.”
Natasha’s Foundation has called on the government to introduce clearer, standardised allergen labelling, improve allergen information for online food sales, and strengthen precautionary allergen labelling through robust testing, stronger enforcement and greater public awareness.
Ednan-Laperouse added: “Food allergy is not a choice or a preference. It is a serious medical condition that can cause a life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. By working together, we can create a safer and fairer future for the 3 million people in the UK living with food allergy.”
The FSA has not planned any further sampling of Dubai-style chocolate products, The Grocer understands. However, if the agency receives new intelligence suggesting an additional or continued risk, it may consider performing further surveillance sampling or targeted sampling through local authority funded programmes.
Other results showed that, of 40 goat meat samples tested, 22 samples were deemed unsatisfactory for authenticity. A total of 20 samples were found to be entirely sheep, with no goat DNA detected despite being sold or described as goat meat.
Another unsatisfactory sample contained a mixture of goat and sheep, while one frozen goat meat product purchased online was identified as deer.
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