Chinese milk
The scale of the problem in China caused by adulteration of baby milk with melamine is appalling. I struggle to comprehend how people can knowingly put the lives of so many babies at risk by adding...
View ArticleLook after your leftovers
Christmas is almost upon us. Enjoying seasonal food is an essential part of Christmas for most people but at this time of year it can be easy to overlook the things we should do to ensure that our food...
View ArticleMaking sure it all adds up
I’m often on record saying that science is fundamental to the FSA’s work – it drives our investigations and understanding of the risks to consumers. Of course, the statistics and other analytical...
View ArticleThe hazards of risk
Frustratingly, hazard and risk have very different meanings for scientists, yet the media, when talking about food safety, sometimes use them interchangeably. The need to distinguish between the...
View ArticleAnecdotes, science and aspartame
What role does ‘anecdotal evidence’ play in science? Truly anecdotal evidence is not evidence in the scientific sense, it's observation, it’s often subjective, and the effects seen may be due to a...
View ArticleIn front of the silk
Last week, my colleague stood in for me at the conference on food law and drink held by the British International Institute of Comparative Law. This was an unusual audience for our messages on how...
View ArticleScience can simply be ambiguous
You may remember that at our Board meeting back in December, we decided that our advice on eating peanuts when pregnant, breast-feeding and weaning needed to change. This is because a major review by...
View ArticleNo air, no bugs… right?
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Even in the absence of air, some types of bacteria can grow on food –Clostridium botulinum is one of these. We know this nasty bacterium multiplies, without air,...
View ArticleChemical confusion
Almost a year ago, Neville Reed blogged on the Royal Society of Chemistry’s website about the alleged existence of ‘100% chemical free’ products. He challenged anyone to suggest a material that he...
View ArticleTighter controls needed on campylobacter
I had an early start this morning, talking about campylobacter on GMTV. Our latest survey shows that it's present on 65% of fresh chicken bought in the UK – so it was a good opportunity to remind...
View ArticleThe folate debate
We're consulting at the moment on how to increase young women's intake of folic acid, to reduce the number of pregnancies affected by neural tube defects such as spina bifida, and I'm looking forward...
View ArticleCholesterol
I was interested in my nutritionist colleagues take on last week's Daily Mail article, The Cholesterol Con?.It challenges the medical orthodoxy about the role of statins for people (myself included)...
View ArticleJudicial Review on GM rice
I am obviously delighted that the Judicial Review on GM rice found that the FSA complied fully with our obligations under EU law. This is also very good news for consumers, because we have always...
View ArticleThe science of salt
The Agency's salt campaign kicks off again today with new ads and a revamped website. The number of organisations lending support to the campaign – from major manufacturers and retailers, to public...
View ArticleObesity and the FTO gene
I was interested by last week's newspaper coverage about the findings of a study into a genetic component to obesity. The team of researchers combined data from seven study cohorts totalling 19,424...
View ArticlePregnancy
I'm not surprised that our Board paper on folic acid, published last Friday in advance of this week’s meeting, got lots of weekend media coverage. Nor is it surprising that the pregnancy and baby...
View ArticleScience in practice
It's been a busy week and this is my first full day back in the office. I've spent an away day working on leadership behaviours with my heads of division and team leaders, then a day at the Federation...
View ArticleChemical risk assessment
The Committee on Toxicity (COT), one of the independent committees that advise the Agency, has just issued a statement on evolving approaches to chemical risk assessment.It's based on a workshop the...
View ArticleRed 2G
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Judith Hilton. I'm a medical doctor and currently head up the Agency's Microbiological Safety Division. Andrew asked me to keep an eye on the blog while he's...
View ArticleToo much coffee?
Tuesday's (14 August 2007) papers reported that a 17-year-old girl landed in hospital after drinking seven double espressos. Espresso is indeed strong stuff, with relatively large amounts of caffeine...
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