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with too much information, there was a problem with

we can confuse people. salmonella in eggs, next year
When I used to live in we should carry out ten times
Denmark, you could almost more testing than we did this
get angiy about it. One day year. Will it then be ten times
theymight say one thing, and better? No it will not! It w'll
then the next day the messa- not help at all, because the
ge would be totany different. problem with salmonella in
Too little information is bad, eggs is that you have one
but too much is not good infected egg in ten thousand.
either. The other problem we So if you investigate 100 or
are facing is that in a number 1,000 or even 10,000 eggs,
of countries food safety you might find one positive
authorities are not very egg and take that one out. So
interested in giving out the after testing 10,000 eggs you
real information about safety may have only prevented one
problems. case of saln'ionella poisoning.
But when we know that any
Q: VVhll counhy in Europe has tens of
the national food safety out effectively to everyone, thousands of cases of the
authorities. We then leave it Uhe solution clearly lies in I personally believe that this salmonella disease in

to the authorities to explain it building up the capacity of may be because they are humans, you can see that
to their population in their the food safety authorities in responsible for food safety in testing-even testing
own campaigns, taking into thepoorest countries. We take their countty. So, if they say significant numbers-is not
consideration the full load of this work very seriously, that there is a problem with the way forward.
"important infon'ation being especially in our new food, they are pointing a
disseminated at that time in International Food Safety finger at themselves. They In scientific circles and with
that country. Authorities Network (INFO- know that one of the next most authorities, it is now
SAN), whichyoucanlookup questions from the press win understood that this practice
Q: This implies that on the Internet (see end of be: "Why did you not do does not work, or at least it
those countries that do article). somettmg about it before?" does not work alone. You
not have a well-functio- Hosvever, food safety have to analyse the problem,
ning food safety authori- I have already mentioned the authorities in many countries and find the best solution in
ty do not distribute the five keys that have been are starting to change now. order to do something about
same information as the developed for consumers in Forward-looking authorities it. So with the case of
rest of the world. all countries. We send this are significantly more open salmonella in eggs, the best
information to the food safety now and they know that one place to look is in the chicken
They do not, and it is unfair, authorities and say that it of the worst things they can (i.e. the hen!). If the hen
of course! However, in dis- would be a goodideato make do is to hy to conceal laying the egg does not have
cussing what we can do from tbis lmown inyour country. If something. salmonella, you do not get
WHO Headquarters, you you want, we can help you salmonella in the egg! So, if
should know that we are just train people, but it's your Another issue is that we do your flocks are free from
eight professionals working countty that has to do it. In not have very good data. The salmonella, then you will
here in food safety. These this way, it can be done money that is available in obtain eggs free from
eightpeople cover everything correctly-we think. many countries is being used salmonella. What I am saying
from genetically-modified to conduct useless, old- is that, instead of testing
crops to chemicals and avian We would like the informa- fashioned testing. This is 10,000 eggs for salmonella
influenza-and only five of tion to reach the consumer, partly because this is what the and leaving billions of
us are in real fixed-term but we have to do it in a smart consumers want the untested eggs going into the
posts. WHO cannot and does way with our limited authorities to do, simply market, it is a lot better to go
not do eveiything, but we can resources. because nobody has tried to to the chicken fatms and get
do a lot of things if we work explaintothemthatthis isnot rid of the salmonella there.
with national authorities or Q: Do you feel that the the right way to do things. This has already been
others who know howwe can world is aware of the realized in some countries.
make the information reach importance of food Let me explain. The old The Nordic countries, the
everybody. safety? thinking in this area was that Netherlands, the UK,
you had to test things. For Canada, New Zealand and
I agree with you; it is a I'm sure that the world is not any consiuner, this makes the US to some degree-are
problem that we do not reach aware ofthese important food very good sense. For any the countries that are really
all 6 billion inhabitants safety issues-for a number problem to be detected there ahead in this new thinking.
around the globe. If we of different reasons. One should be testing. For So we should focus on
cannot get the information reason is that, if we go out instance, if we believed that prevention, and tty to go to

8 2 2008 Diva

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