HOW SAFE IS YOUR FOOD?

Causes of Concern

Each year, food-borne illness affects about 15 percent of the population of Europe. In the early 1980's, for instance, toxic cooking oil in Spain killed about 1,000 people and made another 20,000 seriously ill. In 1999 the population of Belgium was aghast when it was reported that such items as eggs, poultry, cheese, and butter were possibly contaminated by a poison called dioxin. More recently, Britain's consumers were horrified-and its beef industry was shattered-when cattle  became infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease). Then there was an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which required  the slaughter and disposal of millions of cows, sheep, pigs, and goats. 

Grave though such risks are, there are other factors that worry people when it comes to food. Consumers are troubled  by new techniques that are now being used in the growth and processing of foodstuffs.  The European Commission  wrote in 1998:  "Novel technologies like food irradiation and genetic engineering of food crops have caused a lot of controversy."  Do such modern scientific techniques improve our food or adulterate it?  And what can we do to increase the safety of our own food?  

Next time: HOW SAFE IS YOUR FOOD?  - What Are We Doing to Our Food?

From the AWAKE! magazine, 2001