November 2007

Colleagues in the Agency recently held a workshop on the application of ‘omics technologies (examples are transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics) to food related research, bringing together scientists and policymakers from across the Agency, EU institutions and scientists in other government departments to discuss the use of these techniques.

Over the past few years these techniques have started to be developed to enhance the safety assessment of GM foods, and we are now seeing them being used in other areas of Agency research, such as food authenticity, chemical safety and nutrition.

My blog’s a year old today and I wanted to mark the occasion by thanking all of you for reading and responding to the comments we’ve posted over the past 12 months.

Since my first post went live in November 2006, more than 161,000 people have visited the blog. It’s proving to be a great way to get feedback from consumers, fellow scientists, industry, and others with a professional interest in food.

Some of my postings have triggered really useful debates on topics ranging from traffic light labelling, organic food to raw milk. One got me hailed in the press recently as the saviour of the bacon buttie, which was fun. Please keep your comments coming, on these and other issues.

You may have heard the BBC Today programme this morning and the story about the meat company that allegedly had been delivering rancid meat. The Agency website also has some information on this issue.

The allegations about this company were first brought to the attention of the relevant local authority by a whistleblower. Whistleblowing by employees can be an effective way of bringing dangerous and illegal practices to light.

Last week the Agency and Department of Health set out changes to the law which relate to the promotion, labelling and composition of baby milk.

The new law will ensure that mothers are not discouraged from breastfeeding as a result of the promotion and advertising of infant formula.

In an ideal world, every baby would be breastfed as this provides many important health benefits to both mother and baby. Many people have strong views on this but we must recognise and understand that although breast most certainly is best, there are some mothers who can’t or choose not to feed their babies in this way.

I'm blogging a lot on salt at the moment, but I wanted to welcome the survey by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) , which indicates that on average the salt content of ready meals has reduced by 45% since 2003. The Agency is aware that work on salt reduction has been ongoing in both branded and own label ready meals and this level of reduction is a real achievement by the food industry.

However CASH does highlight some meals which are still very high in salt and some 'healthy eating' range meals that are higher in salt than their standard range equivalents. This emphasises the need for consumers to check out the label.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is celebrating its fifth birthday and, as part of its celebration, hosted a Scientific Forum on 'From Safe Food to Healthy Diets’ in Brussels earlier this week. It was a great opportunity to meet many of Europe’s top food scientists and regulators.

I’m in Brussels today, which is an appropriate place for me to blog about a story running in today’s papers that claims the EU wants to scrap food labels saying 'Made in Britain'.  The basis of these articles seems to be a European Commission consultative document produced in 2004, which has since been scrapped.

The media’s reporting of science has been a topic for discussion on this blog, following the World Cancer Research Fund report earlier this month, and today’s coverage highlights the importance of getting accurate information into the public domain.

Last week I bemoaned the confusing messages that consumers sometimes receive on what's safe and healthy to eat, particularly when we provide plenty of good advice. So I was disappointed to read a headline in The Mail on Sunday that 'Now scientists say (guess what) salt isn't bad for you'. 

Disappointing for two reasons: first because the compelling evidence for an association between salt and blood pressure – which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) – has been described in detail in the report on Salt and Health from the independent experts on the  Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN).  And second, because it implies that 'scientists' are somehow changing their minds week in week out on what's good and bad.

Last night I was at the Royal Society of Chemistry to launch my first Annual Report as FSA Chief Scientist. I was pleased to see so many people from across the scientific community and I would like to extend my thanks to all of you who attended.

My aim is for the Annual Report to be an authoritative reference for our scientific work on food and health.  Examples of how science has influenced policies are included and I have given particular emphasis to our work to reduce foodborne illness and salt intakes.  In future years, the report will plot trends in food-related illness and feature in more detail some specific aspects of our work.

Blogwatchers among you may have seen that I often enthuse about the strength of the Agency’s science. But there’s no room for complacency and so it’s always a pleasure to report new developments, particularly one that will contribute to developing the skills-base of the next generation of scientists.

Today the Agency issued its latest call for applications to its Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme. This scheme was introduced four years ago to help provide future researchers with skills training in areas relevant to the Agency’s future research needs.