Food sector scare - Rogue firms a threat to the economy

AS OUR world becomes more urbanised, more industrialised and ever more populated it is inevitable that we will have regular and worrying food scares.

It is foolish to imagine that each producer, be that a chicken rancher in Brazil, a shrimp farmer on a Vietnamese estuary or a pig farmer in Westmeath, will always reach the standards we hope prevail in the food sector. The scale is too vast, the urgency and momentum too great for things to run smoothly all of the time. The food chain has become so strained and obtuse that each and every intervention carries the potential for difficulty. Things will occasionally go wrong and we should not be overly surprised that they do. The only thing we can control is our reaction.

Sometimes the scare will be the result of an accident and in these instances all we can do is to react quickly and decisively to safeguard consumers and try to restore normal services — and business — as soon as we can.