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AgVetLink: Number 54, February 2006

Responses, residues and all that jazz...

A speaker at the 2005 NZFSA conference stimulated discussions about regulatory and food issues that continued long after the event. Patrick Wall, former chief executive of the Irish Food Safety Authority and now adjunct professor of Food Safety at University College Dublin and board member of the European Food Safety Authority, presented some serious messages in a hilarious, irreverent package. Some of his 'food for thought' follows...*

Proportionality of response

Proportionality of response is a key message from Dr Wall, a qualified veterinarian and medical doctor, who also has an MSc in infectious diseases and an MBA.

In the initial stages of Britain’s BSE epidemic, the British MAF tried to walk a fine line between simultaneously protecting consumers and protecting the beef industry and succeeded in neither. Dr Wall says it was perceived to be suffering from CJD: ‘conflicting job description’. Consumer confidence was damaged in the commitment and ability of the regulatory agencies and the government scientists to protect public health. Since then there exists a risk that being seen as too close to industry can affect a regulator’s credibility with consumers. However, if a regulator’s response to a crisis is not proportionate to the health risk, then unnecessary commercial damage can result. “The public won’t thank you for damaging national brands – and the economy – by taking action that is unnecessary and out of proportion to the risk.”

Dioxin disaster

To support the point he recounts the disaster that befell the Belgian food industry, and the country’s economy, in 1999. A small quantity of dioxins had been found in a batch of animal feed. Though highly toxic, by the time the feed would have been consumed by animals or poultry which were subsequently processed into human food, any dioxin that remained would have been “a few parts per million” and of very little risk to human health. But the combination of a tardy response by the Belgian Government, lack of traceability and misinformation being fed to consumers led to a national catastrophe, ultimately resulting in the fall of the Government.

Industry responsibility

It is extremely challenging for food safety agencies to manage technical breaches in legislation that do not pose a health risk. The recent recall of all products containing Sudan 1 is another case in point. While the health risks were extremely low, one can’t allow genotoxic carcinogens into the food chain and industry has a responsibility to know the source and quality of all of the ingredients, however small the quantity it uses in its products.

“Industry must look after its own interests and not cry bad luck when something untoward occurs and its reputation and brand is damaged.” It is, says Dr Wall, rarely a case of bad luck. Rather, it is bad management on their part.

Adverse publicity

Dr Wall says you may not always be able to control adverse publicity associated with your products or reputation. He highlighted an example of how a crisis in a foreign market impacted on Ireland’s reputation as a producer of quality food:

an Irish pharmaceutical company exported waste from a facility manufacturing the ‘morning after’ pill for incineration in Belgium. When herds of pigs in Holland, the world’s third-largest pork exporting country developed fertility problems, the progesterone residue was found in their kidney fat and subsequently in the feed they were consuming. The feed was tracked back, and illegal and fraudulent practices were identified in the waste management company in Belgium. ‘Ireland the Food Island’ was portrayed as the source of the problem though it had nothing to do with Irish food. But the adverse publicity was outside Ireland’s control. The media had a field day with a fried breakfast being equated to the morning-after pill.

The media is often accused of generating food scares but they are the professional communicators and agencies must interact with them in an open and transparent fashion, he says.

“The media are quick to recognise spin and will be unforgiving of the spin merchants. Corporate giants are a fair cop, followed by government bureaucrats, so building a relationship in peace time can come in very useful in assisting in the management of a crisis.”

Dr Wall has high praise for New Zealand’s attitude to food production, commending both the New Zealand Food Safety Authority which he says is in the lucky position of “having experts on just about everything”, to the country’s food-producing industries which are “match fit” as a result of the removal of farm subsidies in the 1970s and because of New Zealand’s strong emphasis on free trade. NZFSA has an excellent reputation worldwide, he says.

To view Dr Wall’s presentation, visit www.nzfsa.govt.nz