August 2007

Andrew is in Scotland at the moment taking a couple of days leave so I'm blogging in his absence. I saw today's piece on BBC News online about water quality in the developing world and the particular problem of arsenic in water and subsequently in rice.

Arsenic at high levels can cause cancer; the metal is present naturally in soil, and is thought to leach into groundwater. If wells are not dug deep enough then it can be a real problem.

We also take the issue of arsenic seriously in the UK and in October 2006 and May of this year published surveys looking at the levels of particular metals in infant foods and formula.

The latest survey by local authorities claims there's been an overall decline in salt content of processed foods by 11% since 2005.

Any reduction in salt levels is a welcome development, but there is still more that needs to be done, particularly by some sections of the food industry, to help consumers cut their salt intake.

Today my eye was caught by a very attractive photograph of berries in an article in the Daily Telegraph, telling us: ‘If it’s purple, black or blue – eat it.’

Although the article says ‘no one is suggesting that we ditch all the rest of the fruit and veg, it’s just that simply eating your greens [isn’t enough]', it’s easy to see how a member of the public could be misled when it goes on to present a week’s worth of menus based almost entirely on these colours of fruit and veg.

Some of my colleagues are guinea pigs in an important study of  stress and health led by Professor Sir Michael Marmot at University College London. They are part of the 10,308 civil servants who volunteered for the study 22 years ago. The study has contributed enormously to understanding how the conditions in which people live and work affect their health.

Most of the group are office-based employees, from mandarins to messengers, and include a number of FSA colleagues.  As Chief Scientist, I am head of profession for the (almost) half of the Agency's team who are scientists. It's my job to support the recruitment and retention of high-calibre scientists to the FSA, guide their training and professional development,  and champion their work. In this role, I know how important it is to gain recognition for their excellent scientific work so that they feel valued and appreciated.

Tuesday’s (14 August 2007) papers reported that a 17-year-old girl landed in hospital after drinking seven double espressos. Espresso is indeed strong stuff, with relatively large amounts of caffeine in each cup, but the effect it had on her was almost certainly due to the number of cups she drank. And some people are more susceptible to the effects of caffeine than others.

Posters in antenatal clinics remind us that one of the major concerns about caffeine is to do with possible effects of drinking too much coffee during pregnancy. This is because pregnancy is when the risk of effects is greatest.

I’ve spent most of today going through all the emails that came in while I was on leave. One, from Clare Cheney, Director General of the Provision Trade Federation, asks if the FSA could formulate advice, informed by internal or independent external opinion, on the latest food stories running in the media.

To be honest, it was one of those emails I wished had reached me via the blog. I really want the food industry to engage with this resource and to see its potential for open debate, in the way that Peter Melchett did when he posted the Soil Association’s views about my blog on organic tomatoes. I replied to him, and to others, yesterday.

With the summer holidays upon us, a new food ingredient designed to improve the texture and taste of lower fat ice creams has been given initial approval by one of our independent committees of scientists.
 
Many food companies are looking to reduce the fat and sugar in their products, but taking these ingredients out of a product like ice cream makes it difficult to get the feel of this treat right. So Unilever applied to use ice structuring proteins in making ice cream to help make the very small crystals consistent with that creamy feel.

A colleague's drawn my attention to a blog entry on our SMS text alert service for people with food allergy and intolerance. 

As a novice blogger (Andrew's due back from holiday next week) I'm learning very quickly that no topic seems to be off-limits, and I'm naturally delighted that our text service is getting talked about on the SMS text news blog, particularly as it's described as 'another great example of the public sector finally getting on the mobile bandwagon..how neat is that?'

Judging by this week's weather in London, summer finally seems to have arrived, and with it, one can safely assume, the sparking up of countless barbecues across the land.

This is timely - our independent scientific advisory committee on microbiological safety of food (the ACMSF) has been reviewing the Agency's advice about cooking burgers and its final report has just been published.