APA News

  • How can we be sure our food is safe to eat?


    A summer that has brought us Hepatitis E in pork and Fipronil in eggs has prompted the Guardian’s Special Correspondent Felicity Lawrence to pose this question in an article published in last Friday’s paper. She writes:- 
    “The structures established in the wake of previous scandals to ensure our food is not only safe and wholesome, but is also what it claims to be, are being quietly dismantled. Just when Brexit demands a well-resourced, home-grown capacity to safeguard food standards, we are shrinking our capabilities. Local authorities – a crucial pillar in the edifice since they have legal responsibility for testing foods sold in their areas – are so starved of money that they have cut checking to the bone. Public analysts, who used to be busy producing results for them, describe labs that are only kept going with private commissions as their public work falls away.”
    The full article, described by Professor Chris Elliott as “A very good & hard hitting article on the dismantling of the UK food safety system”  (@QUBFoodProf) can be accessed on the Guardian Website