Introduction
Notified cases of food poisoning have been
increasing since the early 1980s and this trend
is continuing – figures for Scotland show a 21
per cent increase in the number of notified
cases in 1995 compared with 1994 (Scottish
Office,1996). Issues of microbially contami-
nated food are never far from the headlines,
for example: “Fear of E. coli chills shoppers”
(The Scotsman, 1997). The reasons for the
increase are complex – influences throughout
the food production chain as well as virulence
of pathogens, susceptibility of hosts and
detection and reporting patterns must all be
taken into consideration (CMSF, 1991).
Eradication of key pathogens from the food
chain will require long-term efforts
(ACMSF,1993) and it is recognised that
consumers cannot expect food ingredients to
be free from microbial contamination. Many
cases of food poisoning occur as a result of
failure to control growth of pathogens in
foods, but with due diligence at all stages in
the food chain this is largely preventable
(Shapman and Shapman, 1992; Waites and
Arbuthnott, 1991).
Efforts to reduce the incidence of food
poisoning concentrate on three areas – investi-
gation, legislation and education (Gilbert,
1983; Griffith et al., 1995; Wheelock, 1989).
Of these, education must be regarded as the
only effective means of influencing food
handling practices in the home. The World
Health Organisation has called for shared
responsibility in commitment to food safety. It
stresses the importance of enabling the public
to be discriminating and selective consumers,
to form active consumer groups and to adopt
safe food practices in the home. To meet these
aims, consumers need to have a confident
understanding of the basic principles of food
hygiene at least, to ensure they can assess
relative risks and make informed decisions
about food-handling practices. While it
appears that much is being done to educate
the public in terms of food choices and food
preparation related to health and wellbeing,
is there evidence that the same emphasis is
being placed on making information available
regarding the safe handling of food?
Evidence of room for improvement in
consumer practices is abundant (Eley, 1997;
Worsfold and Griffith, 1997) but it should be
appreciated that information alone cannot
138
Nutrition & Food Science
Number 3 · May/June 1998 · pp. 138–144
© MCB University Press · ISSN 0034-6659
Food hygiene
information: power to
the people?
Alison Reid
Dawn Wood and
David Kinney
The authors
Alison Reid, Dawn Wood and David Kinney are all
based at the School of Management and Consumer
Studies, University of Dundee, Scotland.
Abstract
The issues of microbial food poisoning are never far from
the headlines. Of particular concern is the emergence of
strains of increased virulence, for example
Escherichia coli
0157.
As we are likely to be faced with a succession of
food hygiene challenges in our kitchens, do consumers
have access to the information they need and is it present-
ed in such a way that it encourages and motivates towards
good food handling and food hygiene practices? This
paper concentrates on a range of food hygiene informa-
tion provided by the Government, the Health Education
Authority and the media. The information is examined
with respect to availability, content and context. Observa-
tions are made from sociological, scientific and visual
communications perspectives.