From farm to fork, the food cops are on the job

They are the men and women who want to save you from salmonella sandwiches. They are here to clean up the restaurants, cafes, canteens, factories, slaughterhouses and supermarkets of this great nation. They have the power to trace all food products from "farm to fork". The Food Safety Authority of Ireland is the food police.

"Our mission is to protect consumers health by making sure sure sub-standard food is not consumed distributed marketed or produced in this State. We are responsible for enforcing food safety legislation, setting standards and co-ordinating the food law-enforcement agencies," Alan Reilly, deputy chief executive of the FSAI, says.

Protecting the nation is no small task and requires massive manpower from a variety of different fields to get the job done. The FSAI has five different divisions dealing with food science and standards, service contracts, consumer protection, auditing and compliance and corporate services. They also have links with a number of government departments and State agencies involved in legislation or enforcement, making the whole food safety team a fairly formidable force.

"With the people working inside the authority, in government departments and agencies, there are over 2,200 members of the food safety family," Reilly says.

The different disciplines needed to make the FSAI work, means that graduates form a wide variety of backgrounds are required by the FSAI. In the main, the jobs are in the science and technical areas, Reilly says, including a whole range of life sciences such as food chemistry, toxicology, medical public health and veterinary public health.

"Our operational division looks after the core functions of the FSAI and is led by specialists in different areas. We have a chief of veterinary public health who is responsible for setting the standards for dealing with and monitoring the health of animals entering the food chain. He is supported by other vets. We have a chief environmental officer who looks at the work done by the environmental health office. We also have doctors who are specialists in public health looking at food-borne illnesses, liaising with microbiologists, examining why people get sick."

There are a large number of food scientists working in the FSAI, "providing the science behind the standards". There are nutritionists, microbiologists and botanists. Food toxicologists are needed to study the affect of food additives and the harmful affects of contaminants like dioxin or residues from pesticides. Relatively new issues like GMOs have increased the need for food biotecnologists assessing if food is safe, monitoring the food supply and negotiating with Brussels.

Along with the scientific staff, there are barristers specialising in food legislation, contract managers and administrative and clerical staff. We also have corporate services, accountants, statisticians, a HR department and an IT division maintaining the FSAI web services and links with the different agencies. There is also a press officer and an information group who are responsible for the very important work of making sure the public are up to date on food safety issues.

For the more senior jobs in the FSAI, experienced practitioners are employed, but they also recruit new graduates and have a staff development programme. "Some of our staff are doing MBAs and often vets and EHOs do business administration courses to complement their training.

"People have a lot of freedom to develop and progress in keeping with their own personal style. The type of person we're looking for is a self-starter, with a lot of flair who can work with minimum supervision. There's a lot of satisfaction in protecting consumers health," Reilly says.