Consumers would be better able to determine the risks with food safety if they were properly informed by industry and science, a seminar on food safety has been told.
"The public are bombarded with information about what's safe and unsafe," said Dr Patrick Wall, chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. "They are perhaps over-worried, and there is an obligation on industry to take that worry away." he said.
Changes in eating habits and food preparation have increased the risk of unsafe food, said Dr Wall.
The growing number of stages in food preparation in factories increases the risk, as does the greater consumption of convenience food, which has been cooked in the microwave. In many cases, he said, consumers may be worried about certain foods and not others which also contain a risk. They are worried about pesticide residues on food, for example, but know little about the possibility of chemicals seeping from packaging into the food.
In the case of food additives and preservatives, the risks must be balanced with the benefits, such as their function in keeping food safe. This must be communicated to the public in an understandable way, said Dr Wall.
Consumers want a trustworthy source of information so they can make informed choices, said Dr Wayne Anderson, the authority's chief food science specialist, at the seminar "Risk Assessment: A Food Safety Seminar".
The public needs to be told "there is no such thing as zero risk", said Dr Anderson. There is a scientifically measured acceptable level of risk, below which there is no harmful effect.
And science needs to converse with the public, which can understand the issues if they are explained properly, said Dr Wall.
Industry has a responsibility for food safety, an area that has become vitally important in recent years, since the public has witnessed "a chronology of food scares from salmonella to BSE", he said.
Industry must "win the trust back. The public will not be satisfied with spin. They need a scientific basis" for their decisions, he said.
It is not enough for industry to give a statement to consumers telling them a food is safe, they need to understand the argument, Dr Anderson told the seminar.