The importance of controls and transparency in the food industry should never be underestimated.
The start of the year has seen a number of issues hit the meat sector, which could have been avoided with more transparency and more thorough controls.
Russia has suspended the import of chilled meat products, including poultry meat, from Germany due to a lack of an appropriate safety assurance system. The long-running debate over Brazilian access to the Russian market for its poultry products took another twist, with Russia questioning the Brazilian inspection system given the length of time the country had taken to declare a case of BSE.
The UK and Ireland have seen the contaminated burger scandal. The source of contamination has yet to be made public but, once it is, we could find the contamination is more widespread than presently thought. While the contamination posed no threat to human health, the apparent lack of openness has resulted in widespread damage to the food industry, and this could spread further still.
A quick straw poll has found revulsion for equine DNA in products that are supposed to be made of beef. But whether eating horse meat is acceptable or not, and for a lot of people it is perfectly acceptable, consumers should at least know what they are buying.
Intentional or accidental?
The processors and retailers of the affected products did not know that what they were selling was not of bovine origin, and it is too soon to tell whether the supplier of the ingredients was careless with controls or intentionally set out to deceive. Whatever the case, something, somewhere went wrong.
Of course, things can always go wrong, but proper enforcement of properly designed controls should prevent this. And once operations are running properly, there is nothing to hide, and consumers should be allowed to make their own choices.
The success of being open with the public is highlighted by our cover feature. Opening up to the public has changed perceptions of German poultry and egg producers, and even led to visitors wanting to purchase product. Of course, not all responses to the initiative were positive, but at least those visited the farms saw what was really going on and could make their minds up.
A well-run business is something to be proud of, and surely it's better to run a business well and be open, rather than leave the public to wonder how their food is produced and arrive at a who knows what conclusion!
