(This is a re-post of my Storify article, which follows on from this one)
Following the FSA’s decision to recommend potential controls for serving rare burgers to consenting adults, I’ve been getting a little cross about this. Here’s an update.
I was travelling back from France over Tuesday and Wednesday so hadn’t caught up with whether the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) had considered their public health position on the FSA proposals.
It turned out they had.
And in the online newsletter for the environmental health community, Professor Hugh Pennington was cited in support of the CIEH’s position:
EHN Online has written articles on the topic previously, and again Professor Pennington offers his unequivocal advice. And it’s not in support of the faddish and foolish:
Personally and professionally, it remains my opinion that for the FSA to even hint that it is possible for rare burgers to be safely prepared and sold to the public will only encourage the less capable and competent sectors of the catering industry to think that they’re safe to prepare and sell without bothering with all the rigmarole. After all, what can possibly go wrong?
The proposed controls suggested by the FSA read more like sophisticated theology than a simple set of rules to ensure the service of safe food. And that’s the clue folks! If it’s that bloody hard to do safely, it almost certainly can’t be done safely.