THE BIGGER PICTURE When I was chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, an 82-year-old man came up to me after a public meeting on food safety in Rosscarbery in Co Cork and asked: "If food is so dangerous, how did we all get this far? We are in more danger of being regulated to death!" writes Dr Patrick Wall.
The old man was partly right and there is a perception that food is dangerous when food is probably safer now that it has ever been.
However, there are new germs and new threats that did not exist when the old gentleman was a boy. E coli O157, antibiotic resistant strains of salmonella and campylobacter and new variant CJD didn't exist heretofore.
Furthermore, there are more vulnerable people surviving in the population and food has to be safe for the weakest members of society.
A bout of food poisoning can be a mild disease for a robust adult but can be life threatening for a frail, elderly person or somebody on cancer chemotherapy or suffering from some other illness.
Therefore, there can be no room for carelessness or complacency and regulations in proportion to the risks are necessary.
However, most people, particularly Irish people, don't like regulations and we like enforced regulations even less.
Officials clamping our cars to keep the traffic flowing, Garda with speed cameras doling out penalty points to slow us down and stop accidents, or food safety inspectors enforcing hygiene rules don't win prices in the popularity stakes.
But they are necessary to maintain standards.
Dialogue between the regulators and the regulated in the food sector is important as a greater understanding of why certain controls are necessary will improve compliance greatly.
Global distribution means more miles, and increasing demand for ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat food means more stages in the food chain, providing more opportunities for things to go wrong.
More eating out means that we are entrusting our health to others and we expect them to have high standards.
Food safety is not rocket science and simple hygiene at all stages along the food chain will go a long way to ensuring safe food.
Over the past few years, a series of surveys revealed that a proportion of consumers are not confident in the safety of food on sale yet when one looks at the bulging trolleys on any Saturday in our supermarkets you would think people were stocking up in anticipation of a Bin Laden attack and the supermarkets are open again on Sundays!
In the midst of the various food scares, nobody stopped eating and there were no outbreaks of starvation.
At different times we loose confidence in certain categories of foods and just replace them with others, i.e. beef with chicken and vice versa.
The big problems that put food safety in the spotlight - BSE, dioxins, growth promoters in beef production etc - resulted from, and were spread by, mass production, global distribution and the relentless drive for cheaper food.
Much EU food law is designed to facilitate trade in the single market.
Increasing liberalisation of trade under the World Trade Organisation requires all businesses in the supply chain to operate to legal standards if free trade is to be safe trade.
Those businesses trading in the enlarged single market, and further afield, have the economies of scale and the turnover to afford the cost of compliance but for people trading locally, or operating on a small scale, the cost of compliance may threaten their commercial viability.
Artisans and traditional food producers have been caught up in the responses of the regulators and major retailers to the big food safety problems with stricter requirements, central distribution and a policy of using a limited number of approved suppliers.
Consumers' interests will not be best served by the demise of the small businesses.
The passion, enthusiasm and pride which the small food producers of Ireland, from cheese makers to craft butchers, have for their products has to be witnessed.
They are winning the international awards that are putting "Ireland the Food Island" up in lights and the commodity products are often trading on this reputation.
They are akin to the haute couture of the Irish food industry.
Like food, tourism is a competitive global business and people don't come to Ireland for the sun.
Unique food products from the locality, such as farmhouse cheeses or mountain lamb, can help differentiate holidays in Ireland from those elsewhere and win return business.
They are a key part of what makes a holiday in Ireland special and are doing their bit to stop the homogenisation of cultures that comes with globalisation.
Unfortunately, access and availability are issues to be addressed if all consumers are to have the opportunity to enjoy this food.
A section for local produce in supermarkets and the growth in farmers markets are to be welcomed.
For people seeking food with a short supply chain, local produce is the ultimate in traceability.
If small players are to survive, they must play their part and produce foods that are "special" and also provide value to their customers.
There is a concentration of artisan and traditional food producers in certain counties, particularly Cork. Restaurants and hotels can only serve local speciality products where they exist.
Increasingly, local authorities see this sector as contributing to rural development and making their area special.
Start-ups need to be encouraged, and supported if a food culture is to develop throughout the island of Ireland.
You wouldn't put diesel into a petrol car but despite the mantra "we are what we eat and food is the fuel for our bodies", some of us show little regard for our personal engines. We need to focus on taste and nutritional quality rather than quantity and price.
Bon appetit!