Peering at nano-foods
I welcome the report from the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee into nanotechnology, which was chaired by Lord Krebs, a former Chair of the Agency. New and emerging technologies can...
View ArticleRisky reporting
I’m sitting at a conference talking about the huge issue of campylobacter – a food bug that’s making 300,000 people seriously ill every year. There is no uncertainty about the risks to people’s health...
View ArticleNanofoods – size matters
Having taken a swipe at media spin a few days ago, it’s good to finish the week flagging up a bit of media sense – no prizes for guessing it comes from New Scientist. Its editorial joins the chorus for...
View ArticleDon't do it yourself diagnostics
I know that it can be extremely worrying for parents when they suspect their child has a food allergy, but wrongly diagnosing someone with a food allergy could also have a serious negative effect on...
View ArticleWhat's on the horizon?
Friday's Daily Mail suggests the Agency is ordering the country to go vegetarian to help reduce green house gases ('Go vegetarian, by order of Government food police'). This is after we published a...
View ArticleAn evidence based approach keeps the wolf at bay
Following the publication of the European Food Safety Authority survey on food, I was interested to read that only 29% of UK consumers think that food could damage their health. Of course I’m...
View ArticleNew evidence on E. coli
There was an interesting development in the science around E. coli O157 reported last week. An article in the British Medical Journal showed that E. coli O157 infection can lead to an increased risk of...
View ArticleWhere's your dinner from? There's an app for that...
Traceability – it’s like the food safety equivalent of the mobile phone, I can’t remember how we managed without it.Being able to trace where a product has come from and where it has gone to has become...
View Article‘The co-pilot had fish. What did the navigator have?’
He’s not your typical advocate for food safety, but actor Leslie Nielsen, who died yesterday, did wonders for bringing the issue to people’s attention – Airplane! must be one of the only films in...
View ArticleDoes illegal mean unsafe?
You may have seen the recent stories in the news about dioxin-contaminated eggs coming to the UK from Germany. Although eating these products is not considered to be a health concern, this story still...
View ArticlePrions transmitted by aerosol
BSE is an emotive subject, so I was surprised that new research demonstrating the transmission of prions (the infectious agent that cause BSE) by aerosol, slipped out last week without furore.The...
View ArticleThe end is nigh for BSE
The New Scientist had good news last week, reporting on the latest official figures from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), which show BSE has almost been eradicated – just 25 years after...
View ArticleTime to speak out or a time to remain silent: is it right to communicate...
It’s no secret that I’m a big supporter of engaging the general public in science, so it’s been great to see the huge range of events that have been put on to celebrate National Science and Engineering...
View ArticleAre we technologically backward? I'd like to think not!
I believe that in the UK and Europe we are at the forefront of technological development, so I take offence to the EU being portrayed, in the Wall Street Journal, as backward and having ‘long fought...
View ArticlePresenting uncertainty
While Andrew’s out of the office I thought I’d draw your attention to an interesting article on the BBC’s website about communicating risk.This is always an interesting topic for us and one we tackled...
View ArticleThe big chill
A recent edition of New Scientist raised an interesting question about whether bacteria can live or even thrive at very low temperatures, particularly bacteria that can live inside a refrigerator. With...
View ArticleE.coli is Archers' target
As a lifelong follower of The Archers, BBC Radio’s very, very long running rural soap opera, I have been enjoying the current storyline about food hygiene. Pat and Tony (Archer!) run a very ‘right-on’...
View ArticleCome and join the debate
We love a good robust debate here at the FSA and few subjects bring out the ‘robustness’ of people’s views like a discussion on GM crops. So to ensure that a range of views get an airing our latest...
View ArticleNo room for a slip up in science
The idea of using bananas as a measure of radiation is all a bit much to get my head around on a Monday afternoon, but this BBC article makes for an interesting if not mind-boggling read. Did you know...
View ArticleScience is key to building trust, but it's not an absolute
Last week, I was fortunate to be asked to speak at the European Food Safety Authority about independence and scientific decision-making – and how we’ve used this to build trust in food safety in the...
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