Whatever the reasons, the result is an “unprecedented rise in foodborne illness”.
Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, said it was no surprise and there would be more cases “until the British public wakes up and says it is not acceptable”. He added they should ask: “Why should I play Russian roulette with food?”
He put the increase in cases down to a “weakening of state attention and regulatory focus on food hygiene and safety”. He added that the situation had been “worsened by Brexit and local authority cuts, and a fragmentation of the system of food safety governance”.
Given that we know he’s werong, always, that cannot be the explanation. Instead, what about the idea that by taking the preservative chemicals out of everything and instead eating naturally – with the bugs still in – everyone’s getting food poisoning?
After watching ‘Clarksons’ Farm’, any suggestion that food safety standards have been reduced is patent bollocks. Perhaps farmer Jim of this parish has a few words on the subject.
And any suggestion that ‘Brexit’ is to blame for absolutely anything is also patent bollocks too as we haven’t yet had ‘Brexit’.
So there’s a rise in salmonella imported from places like Poland, but not being in the EU is the problem? Doesn’t seem to have worked wonders for the quality of Polish chicken.
My guesses: cost-cutting amongst big food suppliers ie buying in cheap stuff from Poland etc; immune systems compromised by lockdown and masks, more people eating lukewarm crap delivered from their local ‘ethnic’ takeaway.
If you look at your local paper, you may notice a pattern in the type of food premises which are being closed or prosecuted by the environmental health.
Addolff:
Yes, there was some whiny woman on the Today programme claiming it was due to Brexit, but she couldn’t actually say how. Needless to say, the presenter didn’t press her very hard.
Organic and e.coli are strongly associated. If you grow something in shit it might not taste like shit but it’s full of shit.
*Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University…*
In ominous Oracular tones: “Beware of someone with an axe to grind!”
Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University,
When the comment is from a Prof at City University, it can be automatically dismissed as bollox without being read. CF Richard Murphy.
I had a friend who used to regularly complain about how the restaurant we had gone to the night before had given him food poisoning. I used to say “so the three bottles of wine for the day – each! – had nothing to do with it?”.
Nope, it was always the restaurant.
I don’t think that I have ever had food poisoning. Do I have a robust constitution? I keep my kitchen surfaces clean but I’m not obsessively hygienic about it. I just use basic common sense and regular hand washing when I’ve been touching something obviously risky, having just cleaned out the chicken hut for example.
“After watching ‘Clarksons’ Farm’, any suggestion that food safety standards have been reduced is patent bollocks. Perhaps farmer Jim of this parish has a few words on the subject.”
One of the biggest changes in farming in the last 20 years has been the introduction of so called ‘Farm Assurance’ which is basically a way by which the large supermarkets have managed to make farmers jump through all manner of extra food safety hoops for zero increase in the price the supermarkets are prepared to pay. There is only one farm assurance company in the Uk, Red Tractor (you may have seen the logo on products) and it has a de facto monopoly of farm assurance. And because supermarkets and food processors will all only buy RT assured food from UK based producers it has become a licence to farm in effect. No farmer can sell his produce into the food chain unless he is RT assured. The cost of this assurance is something that farmers have to bear out of their own pockets, and the supermarkets pay zero for. But of course they are free to import food from abroad that is not RT assured, because reasons.
So the idea that food safety standards in the UK have fallen in the last few decades is bollocks on stilts, at least on the farms anyway. Whether food processing plants are free to have rats running everywhere and add extra arsenic to the food I have no idea.
@ Jim
Presumably farmers are willing to suck up the extra costs for Red Tractor bollocks, because if they weren’t, it wouldn’t happen.
I suspect the problem is that there isn’t unity to tell the supermarkets to fuck off because the suspicion would be that some other farmers would sell out in the hope of causing others to go bust. It’s the classic prisoners dilemma.
Unless you can have an almost total embargo against supermarkets (or form a massive co-operative) then that’s the game you’ll have to pay.
Still, at least the Town and Country planning act doesn’t look like it’ll be repealed so farming can continue to be a loss marking arm to land banking.
“ Exclusive: Hospital admissions for salmonella and E coli have reached their highest level in decades.”
These bacteria are spread in the fæces by person to person contact due to poor personal hygiene. Immigrants from shite-holes are renowned for their attention to hygiene – and has there been an increase, Dear Grauniad, of these folk I wonder?
Poor food storage and handling results in bacterial contamination.
Food is not the only source, contact with animals too. Most avians carry salmonella, so people with bird tables, bird baths or who otherwise have contact with bird shit and don’t wash hands afterwards are at risk.
E Coli can be transferred from pets who get infected by eating god-alone-knows-what whilst outdoors, or contact with wild animals or their droppings, drinking from puddles or they pick it up on their fur. And we all know what dogs and cats are fond of licking.
From what I observe, people stroking pets, letting them lick their faces, having them on the furniture, beds or in bed with them, allowing cats on kitchen work surfaces, letting babies crawl around on dog and cat shit infested floors, I’m surprised there are so few cases.
Then there’s feet – shoes on – on the furniture and seating on public transport which seems to be the fashion these days. Apart from what gets picked up on the soles from lavatory floors, there’s what gets picked up outdoors. Dog owners may pick up Fido’s leavings, but that does not remove traces of fæces and any bacteria they contain, so people who walk over the pavement or grass get that on their shoes.
Never mind food standards, basic personal hygiene needs to be taught – particularly to pet owners.
maybe removing the plastic lids and so on in the name of “saving the environment” has something to do with it. Also reusable bags is a known source of cross contamination for meat juice pathogens.
*Looks at the, quite ….professionally…. hidden, actual incidence*
Yeah.. Something, something, small numbers, big percentages…
But honestly… 3-6: 100.000? I’ll take my chances…
“I suspect the problem is that there isn’t unity to tell the supermarkets to fuck off because the suspicion would be that some other farmers would sell out in the hope of causing others to go bust. It’s the classic prisoners dilemma.”
Bingo. Got it in one. Thats how they suckered everyone in – offered a small premium at the start for the assured produce, then when a critical mass of producers had taken it up they pulled the rug out and said ‘We only buy from assured producers’. Thereby forcing everyone else to join up. Its total abuse of market power but as we all know, rules only count when are they benefit the multinationals, not when the little man is getting shafted.
@John B: ’Then there’s feet – shoes on – on the furniture and seating on public transport which seems to be the fashion these days.’
Most often, parents fondly watching their toddlers stomp all over the seats…
Like Stoneyground I too have never had food poisoning. Luck, or good home cooking? The jury’s still out – I do love a takeaway! But stick to one only, I don’t flit around.
I am less sure it is “ethnic” takeaways to blame. It seems to have become quite the thing, at high end restaurants, hotels, etc, to serve chicken that is so raw it’s still pink and oozes litres of fresh myoglobin.
Don’t get me wrong, I roast pork pink and have even eaten Mettbroetchen (German sushi). But chicken? No thankyou.
I don’t doubt you can theoretically sous vide this to safety, but get your temperature and timing just slightly off and you don’t just have a disgusting and unappetizing dish, but a deadly one, which some people will not want to send back in order to not cause a scene.