THE need for the introduction of better food safety strategies to protect Irish consumers has been underlined in the first annual report of the Food Safety Advisory Board.
It also criticises the absence of a national food-borne disease surveillance system which, with monitoring of disease transmitted from animals to humans, is necessary for effective control of both disease categories.
The report for 1995-1996 high-lights "inherent limitations in current tests. These include animal-based experiments to predict risk to humans, who often metabolise substances in a different way. It recommends the adoption of new scientific techniques such as in vitro toxicology, molecular modelling and computer simulation to evaluate risks to the public.
Coping with technological risk, including food safety, has been described as the major challenge of the 21st century, the report says. "As living standards rise, people seek to improve their quality of life and that of future generations without sacrificing the protection of health and safety and the environment.
Making judgments on these issues is constrained by inadequacies in the availability of information about the extent of risks and their distribution, yet risk assessment was coming increasingly into prominence as a means of "injecting rationality into the debate".
The FSAB, chaired by Dr Fergus Hill of the Eastern Health Board, was set up in 1995 by the Minister for Health to advise on food safety, nutrition, diseases transmitted from animals to humans (zoonoses) and food law.
Its board includes nutritionists and food scientists with industry, consumer and Government representatives. Expert committees are also affiliated to it.
It was anticipated that the FSAB's activities would be subsumed into the new Food Safety Authority set up last year, but legislation to enable this has yet to be passed. Fianna Fail, however, has said it will bring all food safety bodies under the FSA's umbrella.
The report highlights the FSAB's role in narrowing the gap between public perception and truth in matters concerning food safety.
It warns that over-consumption of saturated fats and alcohol misuse are the largest health risks in Ireland. Food-borne diseases of microbial origin, which are on the increase in Europe and the US, are the third-largest threat.
Dr Hill said that in his view food-borne infection in Ireland was not a major problem, but as long as there were unhygienic practices there was the potential that it could become a major problem.
