September 2007

I attended the World Seafood Congress in Dublin earlier this week and gave a presentation on the risks and benefits of fish consumption. 

I drew heavily upon the advice of our independent experts on nutrition and toxicology. They weighed up the evidence on the developmental benefits to the fetus and infant, and cardiovascular benefits to adults, of consuming long chain omega 3 fatty acids in oily fish, against the developmental risks to the fetus of mercury and dioxins. 

The Food Standards Agency has an active programme in place to help consumers with food allergies and intolerances. This is an area that the Agency takes very seriously and the Board received a progress report on the Agency’s activities at its open meeting last week.

This interest is shared by many others and is clearly a hot topic this week with the publication of the report by the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee, following on from their inquiry on allergy.

Anyone who had the opportunity to hear the Board's discussion on additives and childhood behaviour will appreciate the difficulty of moving from science to policy, particularly on controversial issues such as food additives.  The Board heard from the Agency's scientists; Professor Jim Stephenson, lead author of The Lancet paper; and Professor Ieuan Hughes, Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Cambridge and Chairman of the Committee on Toxicity (COT).

Last week one of my colleagues supported Sir David King at the BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science) Festival of Science in York when he spoke about the Universal Ethical Code for Scientists.  After an early round of radio interviews on this important initiative, Sir David led a series of presentations from scientific bodies and institutions, including the FSA, on how the use of the code impacts on the work that we do.
 
During his presentation, Sir David cited the case of the high profile fall from grace of the cell biologist Hwang Woo-Suk in South Korea last year.  Dr Hwang claimed to have created human embryonic stem cells by cloning, but it was later found that these claims were fraudulent and the scientific papers describing the work were retracted.

UK consumers eat a fairly large number of eggs, as shown in the Agency’s National Diet and Nutrition Survey. This survey tracks trends across the country and shows that, on average, every adult (aged 19-64) eats two eggs each week – not including those used as ingredients in things like cakes and deserts.  

This underlines the significance of a 14 month survey which looked at the level of salmonella contamination in shell eggs used in catering premises. The research tells a positive story, with very low levels of salmonella found. 

A busy day today with lots of media interviews to discuss the research the Agency commissioned from Southampton University on the link between some artificial colours and hyperactivity in children.

As I’ve said on the radio and TV, both the study and the science underpinning it are very specialist and complex and require careful interpretation.

I’m back in the office today after reporting on science in the Agency to the Scottish Food Advisory Committee, followed by some annual leave on the Isle of Bute.

I was exposed to a new Scottish culinary trend (frozen grapes with cheese, anyone?) and then attended the wedding of a colleague who leads on the Agency’s consumer policy work.