Safety monitoring of food improved, says firms' survey

The Irish food industry has responded to food safety concerns by significantly improving production methods, according to a Teagasc survey of 200 companies. In the aftermath of highly publicised food-poisoning outbreaks and food-related controversies, 71 per cent of companies have already implemented what is considered the most important preventive strategy, known as hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP).

According to the survey, a further 15 per cent are in the process of implementing the programme. "Safety consciousness has now permeated all sizes of food companies, with the vast majority of newly-formed small food enterprises now operating HACCP," said Mr Tom Doyle of Teagasc's National Food Centre.

Dr David Taylor of the British Institute of Animal Health told yesterday's conference that Ireland could not expect to avoid incidences of new variant CJD (nvCJD), the human form of BSE associated with eating meat. The absence of cases here so far probably related to the State's low population base, he said.

In time, nvCJD might be found to affect tissues in the body other than the brain, Dr Taylor said, which would have dramatic implications for health care, notably surgery. With brain operations in CJD cases, all instruments had to be destroyed to prevent the disease spreading, for example to the spleen and lymph nodes.

With scrapie, a related condition in sheep, the contaminating material (known as prions), could be found in such tissue before clinical manifestation of the disease.