You might have seen the media reporting yesterday that ham sandwiches shouldn't be included in children’s lunchboxes. While there is some evidence linking bowel cancer to red and processed meats, there is no evidence that the occasional ham sandwich will increase this risk – the key, as always, is a healthy balanced diet. By the way, I’m David Atkins, the Joint Head of Andrew’s Chief Scientist Team here at the FSA. I’m doing this guest blog while Andrew is on holiday.
The confusion over this and other issues that the Agency has to advise on, on a daily basis, reminds me of the infamous statement by Donald Rumsfeld about 'known knowns' and 'unknown unknowns', and although his words did cause some amusement at the time, the history of food safety shows that he had a point.
In the case of ‘known knowns’, we have well documented and studied food contamination issues, such as heavy metals, salmonella, radionuclides and aflatoxins. In these cases, the risks and appropriate responses are well understood and what’s required are periodic surveys to check that the situation hasn’t changed.
With 'known unknowns', the Agency needs to be more proactive. This is where we are aware of the contaminant, understand the toxicity and the need to be vigilant, but it’s difficult to anticipate which, if any food, might be contaminated. The contamination of Chinese milk with melamine is a good example of this. Previous contamination of animal feed had raised concerns, but the scale of the problem in China caused by adulteration of baby milk highlights the importance of international co-operation and traceability throughout the food chain.
The 'unknown unknowns' are of course the most difficult of all. In some cases, such as dioxins, new evidence of a chemical's toxicity shows that an existing contaminant presents a new and unacceptable risk. Sometimes, as with BSE in the 1980s, both the contaminant and the risk are entirely new and unexpected.
Absolute certainty about food safety will never be possible, but we remain vigilant and seek to minimise the unknowns through our research, surveys and the horizon-scanning work with partners around the world. You can find out more about this work in Andrew's next annual report, which will be published on 23 September.