Early public debate needed to allay fear over 'risky' products

The food industry could avoid consumer backlashes over food safety by being more proactive and engaging with the public at a much earlier stage in any product development that involves possible risk.

The public relations disaster over the introduction of genetically modified foods and crops was an important lesson for the food industry, delegates to a food safety conference in Dublin heard last month.

Similar developments could have a social and economic impact far greater than their actual predicted harm, suggested Professor Patrick Wall of University College, Dublin, the former head of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

"These hazards, for example, radiation or recombinant DNA research ... evoke a risk management response that is in proportion to the media interest rather than the degree of risk to the consumer," he told delegates to the European Union Risk Analysis Information Network meeting.

But companies also had to develop communications strategies that clearly articulated the benefits of such developments, both for the individual consumer and the population at large, added Dr Louise Browne from Unilever Corporate Research in the UK. There had to be early and proactive public engagement, she said.

The conference was also warned that poor animal hygiene on farms was hampering efforts to eradicate E.coli 0157 and other bacterial foodborne pathogens.

Dr Declan Bolton, of Teagasc Ashtown Food Research Centre (ARC), suggested that it was practically impossible to control these pathogens until the ?issue of poor hygiene in ?animal production was satisfactorily addressed.

His warning was echoed by Professor James Sheridan, also from Teagasc-AFRC, who said that the recent discovery of completely new types of E. coli in cattle could have significant health implications.

He called for urgent research into live animals and the control of food borne pathogens with "significant public health implications"