The Food Standards Agency reported on 20 August 2026 that its 2025/26 sampling programme supported continuing existing food safety advice for fish from Lough Neagh. The programme assessed fish from the lough between May 2025 and March 2026 for a range of cyanotoxins, which can be produced by blue-green algal blooms. The FSA said it has monitored fish there since a significant bloom emerged in summer 2023, testing different species to understand toxin levels and types.

Commercial fisheries and other food businesses are reminded to follow good processing procedures, including proper evisceration to remove intestines, liver and gills where cyanotoxins can accumulate. Advice to recreational anglers is unchanged: they should eat only edible flesh of properly gutted fish and rinse fillets with clean water to remove contamination from the gutting process.

Philip Kennedy, Head of Food Safety Policy and Delivery at the FSA in Northern Ireland, said the results provide further reassurance that the fish are safe to eat and that the advice remains unchanged. These findings reflect the sampling period and the agency's position as stated on 20 August 2026.