Food safety fears surge as risk management confidence falls in 2026 Willis report

Risk management confidence in the food, beverage and agriculture sector has fallen 27 percentage points in two years – from 89% of respondents feeling somewhat or completely in control of their risks in 2023, to 75% in 2024, to 62% in 2026. Willis, a WTW business, published the Global Food, Beverage and Agriculture Risk Report 2026 on July 9, drawing on responses from 450 senior risk decision-makers at leading food and beverage companies worldwide, surveyed in February and March 2026. The decline is not evenly distributed across risk categories – and its sharpest driver is a litigation trajectory that existing product liability wordings were not designed to address.