The experts behind our advice
For those of you interested in the science behind our work on foodborne disease, I thoroughly recommend a read of the latest report of our Advisory Committee on Microbiological Safety of Food at:...
View ArticleAbsence of evidence is not evidence of absence…
In The Sunday Times yesterday, the distinguished conservationist and journalist Charles Clover took the EU and the FSA to task over the food safety regulations that govern the shucking of...
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 ArticleTaking the nut-free challenge
Following on from our gluten-free week back in May, five of us from the Food Allergy team and Terrence Collis, our communications director, decided to go nut free for a week to experience what it would...
View ArticleA year in the life of the Social Science Research Committee
We really value the expertise of our independent Social Science Research Committee. It helps us when we’re developing our policies and advice to make sure we’re taking account of how people and...
View ArticleThe Archers: never past its sell by date
It sounds like the recent E.coli outbreak in the Archers hasn’t just affected their ice cream – sales of all the farm’s produce has dropped off. It just goes to show ‘bad food hygiene is bad for...
View ArticleMicroscopy on your smart phone
It’s good to see that bacterial analysis could soon be becoming cheaper and easier – a portable microscope, developed by researchers in the US, uses lasers instead of lenses to identify bacteria in...
View ArticleWe can beat the bugs
Our recently published study on infectious intestinal disease (IID) unearthed some worrying statistics. The research found that almost 17 million people suffer from episodes of vomiting, diarrhoea, or...
View ArticleSumming up our science
One of the real pleasures of my job is signing off my annual report, and the fifth report is now available. A pleasure because it gives me the chance to demonstrate the commitment of the FSA to science...
View ArticleNow wash your hands!
A woman coughs on a flight from Hong Kong. The next thing you know, a lethal unknown virus is shooting round the globe and scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are racing...
View ArticleAre ‘sell by’ dates headed for the bin?
Sometimes I feel like a broken record trying to defend the importance of sticking to the humble ‘use by’ date and, conversely, reassuring people they won’t drop dead from eating a can of beans that’s...
View ArticleBalancing the risks
Judging by its press release it seems we’ve upset the National Farmers’ Union. The Agency’s Board decided not to support relaxing the ban on processed animal proteins (PAP) in feed, and the NFU is...
View ArticleDemanding evidence
The launch of the new Ask for Evidence campaign from Sense about Science is timely given the subject of Terrence’s blog yesterday.Ask for Evidence aims to get more people challenging those who make...
View ArticleGene foods
I can assure you that my interest in a new ‘dietary treatment that promises to shrink wrinkles from inside’ is purely professional. Called ‘gene foods’, the supplements developed at Unilever use...
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 ArticleThink you know how to wash your hands?
A new study publicised today shows that it’s not only our hands that are dirtier than they should be, but also the everyday things we touch and use regularly, like our mobile phones.We’re talking...
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...
View ArticleWhat's green, furry and horrible?
“Today I’m a few spots on your Cheddar, but tomorrow your whole kitchen will be full of fur. You will only escape by burning the house down”. What is it Phil Daoust was describing, with Halloween-esque...
View ArticleCould your fridge kill you?
The perils of not taking enough care of how we use our domestic fridges were highlighted in an article in today’s Daily Mail. Although the headline may be rather extreme, in the article Professor Tom...
View ArticleCall for clearer allergy labelling
There is a lot of ongoing discussion in the British Medical Journal following an article calling for a standardised approach to allergy labelling. The article raises concerns that misunderstandings...
View ArticleIs a problem shared a problem halved?
I’m not sure whether to be reassured or despondent at the results of the Republic of Ireland's latest campylobacter in chicken survey. The results show 84% of shop bought chicken is contaminated with...
View ArticleWhen it comes to norovirus we're not shucking our responsibilities
I was on BBC Breakfast earlier this week discussing the findings of our research into norovirus in oysters. And although it may sound alarming that 76% of the oysters tested contained norovirus (and...
View ArticlePregnancy health risk from coffee shop caffeine?
Caffeine is certainly sending our pulses racing this week – or at least those of the headline writers. More seriously, some Glasgow University researchers have found that pregnant women could...
View ArticleBrazilian football legend is victim of food poisoning
I woke up this morning to hear that one of my great footballing heroes, Socrates, has died aged just 57 years. Socrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, to give him his full name, was...
View ArticleRecipes for disaster
How do you feel about the idea of going home this evening and cooking a lovely seared chicken breast – lightly cooked so it’s pink and bloody in the middle? Not tempted? I should hope not! We know a...
View ArticleIt’s a free-for-all
I was extremely pleased to see the Government recommending that all research funded by Research Councils UK be posted on a new open-access website, freely available to anyone and everyone. The...
View ArticleLet's make a risk-based resolution
'What a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of any hypothesis'.Mary Wollstonecraft I came across this quotation in my Christmas reading and it seems as apt now as it was in the 1790s. It...
View ArticleTalking turkey on HACCP
What does the Turkish dairy industry have in common with the FSA? More than you might think…A new law in Turkey means that the dairy industry has recently implemented HACCP-based food safety management...
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