To a cynical purse-string holder in the Department of Finance, it might seem as if a summer of salmonella outbreaks was timed perfectly for those advocating a new direction on food safety. The Cabinet is to decide this autumn on funding for the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), which is designed to be the main bulwark between the consumer and food-related illness.
A cursory look at food-borne illness levels, eating trends and increased vulnerability in people, however, proves otherwise.
Recent events were not only worrying but entirely predictable. Ireland is suffering an increasing incidence of food-related illness as are other Western countries, although our current levels are relatively low. This trend can be reversed, but not easily and not without significant spending.
Tinkering with old strategies, invariably coupled with lack of resources and staffing, will not work, given what the FSAI chief executive, Dr Patrick Wall, has called "a dangerous mix of (new) factors".
These include emerging new bacteria, new food processing and production techniques, consumer demand for ready-to-eat meals, and increasing susceptibility to food- borne illness. This has placed new stresses on the State's ability to keep its food supply safe. The "it will do" attitude of the past was all very well when people shopped every day, bought produce locally and ate it within days.
Recent salmonella and E. coli cases have exposed problems with the identification of food-borne microbes, poor co-ordination in controlling food poisoning outbreaks, glaring shortcomings in food inspection and lack of training for food handlers. Communication was in some cases ineffective as outbreaks in catering establishments persisted. Irish food safety systems were shown to be inadequate.
Besides having to contend with unprecedented demand on health board laboratories for the testing of specimens linked to outbreaks, investigations were hampered by inevitable delays in sending samples to the UK for definitive "typing" in specialist laboratories which this State does not possess.
These are essential to establishing links between cases and effect proper controls and treatment. Their absence is a poor reflection on a food exporting country trading on a reputation for purity.
The need for continuing monitoring of microbes makes effective laboratory facilities a must. The EU is demanding that these be accredited by the end of 1998 and certified as having the capability to ensure protection for consumers.
"The Department of Agriculture and Food is a long way off meeting this requirement," Dr Wall admitted last week.
If State facilities are so lacking, can consumers have confidence in its latest creation on this front, the FSAI, with its brief to set up effective food safety strategies? Since coming into being under the chairmanship of Dr Daniel O'Hare of Dublin City University, and though in interim form, the authority has shown it can work in the consumer's interest.
It has been seen to be independent. The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, who has responsibility for it, has allowed it direct its own course.
He has shown an astute ability to see the overall picture. And the Hepatitis C debacle has convinced him of the need for open, effective and scientifically-based risk communication.
The FSAI has achieved prominence, notably in educating the public in a frank but non-alarmist way. It has put the onus on the food industry to get its house in order.
The poultry industry may not be celebrating the focus on salmonella and its produce, but the authority has spelt out the means whereby consumers can soon have confidence in Irish eggs and chicken.
The Department of Agriculture and Food has repeatedly declared its commitment to food safety. It has assisted the authority and helped trace food poisoning sources.
Equally, its rigorous slaughtering policy where dangerous microbes or infectious agents such as BSE are found on farms has helped preserve Ireland's reputation for good food in the face of horrendous scares.
That said, the commitment has been questioned by the union, IMPACT. It said that inspections of poultry operations and on-farm monitoring for salmonella are not taking place due to lack of resources and staff, and suggested that food safety remains "marginal or peripheral to the Department's core activities".
Those overseeing primary food production cannot afford to allow food safety to be an optional extra.
Increasing reliance on minimally-processed food; increasing virulence of old microbial strains; centralisation and growth of large food distributors; global food distribution and growing numbers of people at risk of severe or fatal food-borne illness because of age or compromised immune systems: these are some of the reasons food safety must be made a priority. When something goes wrong it can go badly wrong.
The symbiotic relationship between the Department and the food/farm industry meant that there was no option but to take responsibility for food safety away from Agriculture. The powers vested in the FSAI this summer indicate that the Government endorses this approach.
The other big players who cannot be overlooked are the increasingly dominant supermarkets. The arrival of major British multiples in Ireland has coincided with food safety achieving high priority.
Dr Wall recently noted that their buying power could cause practices to improve overnight. He considered them "the most powerful agents of change in the Irish food safety arena".
Moreover, they are sensitive to consumer demands, as indicated by recent efforts to obtain eggs from salmonella-free flocks. Consumers' choices can still exert an influence.
Having worked in public health in Britain, Dr Wall knows significant funding for the FSAI's three-year corporate plan will emerge only if he can show that resources will be used in the most efficient way possible - and that it demonstrates an ability to standardise and harmonise the 50-plus agencies which have a food safety role at present.
The cost of funding the FSAI properly may seem considerable. But there will be a payback when the Republic is able to prove that its £5 billion food industry is a "clean green" one with structures and protocols ensuring safety and quality.
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