Never have newspapers or other media carried so much about food and cooking as they do now. And the practitioners of it are considerable personalities in their own right. Many things have changed. We don't sit down to meals so often in our own homes. Young people, in particular, eat out here and there, often almost on the hoof. And eating establishments cater for speedy turnover of customers in many cases. Hygienic standards need to be observed in these establishments, but also where the food is produced. Early in the New Year there was a decisive warning on food safety for farmers and food processors from a leading scientist in Teagasc, the agriculture and food authority. Dr Vivion Tarrant, director of the food centre in Castleknock, warned that farmers and food processors who believe that public concern about safety in food is a passing fad are living in a fool's paradise. In the United States, a country which regards itself as having very safe food supplies, the administration estimates there are 76 million cases of food-related illnesses a year, with 5,000 deaths. The Clinton administration has been forced to introduce a national early-warning system for outbreaks of food-borne illness. And Dr Tarrant believes that to ensure market advantage, the industry must aim for higher standards than the legally required minimum. We in this country are required to put into law, before the end of the present year, a new EU food law which rules that a farmer can be sued for produce found subsequently to be unsafe. A difference from the controls by governments in the past. They must be science-based and integrated into the daily management of farm and factory. So risk management becomes the responsibility of each link in the food chain.
It can be complicated; there is an internationally accepted procedure for the control of food-borne hazards, such as food-poisoning microbes: HACCP or Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points - from farm to retail. Teagasc, says Dr Tarrant, has already helped 400 food companies, and 500 pig producers are now involved. All very complicated, you might say, but also all very safe-making. (From an account of Dr Tarrant's speech in The Meath Chronicle.) We all have our weaknesses. Can't forget a French TV cook who swore he would never eat an apple without peeling it, such was his horror of pesticides. You can't cater for everyone.