IRONIC HEADLINE OF THE DECADE:
Consumers need food safety watchdog with more bite
"CONSUMERS want a food safety watchdog which bites, not one that whimpers, said the head of the UK's Food Standards Agency yesterday"
Instead of which it's got one with its snout stuck lovingly up the industry's backside!
1. FSA labelled 'appalling'
2. Consumers need food safety watchdog with more bite
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1.FSA Labelled 'appalling'
The Guardian, Eco-soundings, 27 September 2001
The level at which GM ingredients will be allowed in food without having to have labels inform- ing consumers of trace amounts remains controversial. The Food Standards Agency stood up for the GM industry last week by not supporting European Commission proposals that all products containing GM should be labelled. The agency says derivatives such as soya oil need no label. The Consumers' Association regards this as 'disappointingly retrograde', 'appalling' and 'denying the consumer choice'. Quite.
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2. Consumers need food safety watchdog with more bite
The Scotsman Wednesday, 26th September 2001, UK; Fordyce Maxwell Rural Affairs Editor
CONSUMERS want a food safety watchdog which bites, not one that whimpers, said the head of the UK's Food Standards Agency yesterday. Consumers also want their interests put first, ahead of farmers, processors and retailers, Sir John Krebs told the European Congress of Agriculture in Belfast. That was what drove his agency's belief in openness and transparency as it tackled the public's food safety concerns - even though he said our food is safer now than it has ever been, giving as an example the fact that in the 1930s more than 2,000 people died each year from bovine TB. But consumers did not believe that food was safe because of the BSE disaster, scares such as dioxins and salmonella and fears about intensive agriculture. Their fears were not borne out by fact. Heart disease and cancer kill more than 100,000 people in the UK each year. Food-borne illness is estimated to kill between 50 and 300 people; food allergies fewer than 20 and not a single death has been traced to pesticides or genetically modified organisms. Nor, said Sir John, is food safety dependent on a particular method of productions. It depends on the correct controls being used to manage risks: "There is nothing inherently unsafe about food from intensive agriculture, just as there is nothing inherently safe about food produced organically."
A recent survey by the Food Standards Agency looking for salmonella and campylobacter in chickens found no significant differences between intensively reared, free range or organic. There could be no single solution to food production methods because not all consumers have the same requirements. Sir John said: "There will be trade-offs. Do consumers want to pay more for their food? Do they really want exclusively locally produced food? Do they want to minimise the effect of food production on the environment?" One thing is clear. They cannot have it all at once. Food cannot be cheap, local, "green", safe and varied all at the same time. David Byrne, European commissioner for health and consumer protection, said that increasing concerns about food quality and safety coincided with proposed radical changes in the European Union's farming policy which should change the public perception of farmers and farming. After the changes, it would be up to farmers to meet other goals such as food safety and quality, animal welfare, environmental protection, sustainability and rural development. But food safety must not take second place to market considerations as "the suspicion existed with good cause in the past that key decisions on farm production were taken with an eye to their market impact rather than on the safety of the product". The proposed European Food Authority would be a cornerstone of a new approach to food safety. It should be ready to start work next year, although it is still to be approved by member states and the European Parliament. The new organisation would close loopholes and strengthen defences, Byrne said, but efficient implementation was crucial. To give the European Commission more clout in getting that implementation, it must have the power to fine member states who were not trying hard enough. Farmers should support food safety legislation and its enforcement: "Even if it needs sanctions and means losses for some of your members you have to help in being ruthless in tackling poor standards.
It is the approach which will ultimately ensure that consumers have full confidence in your produce," Byrne said. Agreeing with Sir John Krebs, commissioner Byrne added that food safety is more about controls than methods of production. There was little wrong with modern farming methods. He added: "I doubt that organic farming will reach 20-25 per cent of total production as some believe. It might reach 10 per cent. Even at that we will find problems with organic just as any other form of farming."
Fordyce Maxwell Rural Affairs Editor Wednesday, 26th