OUR FEAR OF FOOD...

Food recalls were a common feature of the news this summer. Ready meals and packed spinach were the targets this time. I always find these recalls fascinating. Food produced at scale means that when a recall happens there are major impacts for the businesses. Depending of course on the size of the business. Some are too big to fail. For small enterprises though a recall can be catastrophic and invariably an end.
 
The ”possible presence” of a pathogenic bacteria though is usually given as the reason lately. That is a very vague statement in my opinion. Is testing not specific enough in our technologically advanced world? Would this hold up in a court of law? I wonder.
 
What it does hold up in though, is the mind of the public. Condemned through fear, reputations sink through association and businesses sink or swim. Remember how the sales of sanitizer rose in 2020...?
 
Our lives are not risk free. It is worth reminding ourselves of this fact. A poor immune system reinforced with years of poor diet and lifestyle will not be protected by food safety recalls. The eternal dilemma of the germ theory versus the terrain theory needs a reminder. Removing the bugs with strong antibiotics, sterilants and sanitisers does not help in the long run although it is a lucrative model for those involved along the chain… The reality of health comes back to us protecting and building up our immune system. We are learning the hard way.
 
“The terrain is everything, the microbe is nothing” a famous phrase apparently attributed to Pasteur on his deathbed. 

Anne Maher