On nvCJD cases: "The chances are, we will get a case in Ireland. They're like the first AIDS cases. Nobody knows what to do with them. Nobody is taking responsibility for them."

On the British beef-on-the-bone ban: "Somebody has to be held accountable for people dying (from nvCJD)...basically, the shit is going to hit the fan some time down the line. That's the context. There is a level of twitchiness in British politicians. They have a different agenda to pure scientists." On farmers: "Some of them needed `road to Damascus conversions'. But they got rocked by BSE. I know the enlightened are now saying, we do need to assure the consumer that we're not all bad guys."

On current eating habits: "You go into a restaurant. They say `sit down and we'll have this meal for you in an hour'. Your reaction is `this is the worst restaurant I have ever been in'. They cook food from scratch. When food is on the table in two minutes you say, `service is brilliant'. They have heated it from the night before. Society is moving so fast that there is no time for anything. There is inherent risk in all that. When something goes wrong, it goes wrong on a much larger scale."

On food risk: "Is the risk the same as a meteorite falling out of the sky and hitting you or equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day? It's quite bizarre to see people smoking and saying `I'm not eating beef on the bone any more'."

On the Food Safety Authority: "Most in the food industry are enlightened enough; they don't want to poison customers. The major players, the good players, are even more enthusiastic about it than consumers."