Back in 1999, when John Krebs went to see Frank Dobson, then secretary of state for health, about a possible job as the head of the planned Food Standards Agency (FSA), Dobson said, “I can’t understand why you would want this job. People tell me it is a poisoned chalice, but I have looked carefully and I can’t see the chalice anywhere, only the poison.”
Small wonder: Britain was at the time still mired in one of its worst food crises. Despite expert claims that British beef was “perfectly safe,” by the end of 2000, more than 80 people had died from vCJD, the human form of mad cow disease (BSE), and the public had lost trust in government and food safety experts.
Krebs, then a research professor in zoology at Oxford University, took the FSA job for a five-year stint that ended in April 2005 (he is now back at Oxford as principal of Jesus College). His five years in charge began with a commitment to bring transparency to this bit of government. But transparency is not always enough. Food is an emotional matter. In 2001, Krebs had to deal with the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease; in 2004 with claims from scientists that farmed salmon was too dangerous to eat more than a few times a year; and in 2005 with a fight with the food industry over the appearance in food of the banned dye Sudan 1, which triggered Britain’s biggest ever recall of food products. In 2003, Krebs launched a campaign to get us to reduce our salt intake and to persuade the food industry to take needless salt out of food. More recently he has opened the debate over whether junk foods should be advertised to children. Along the way he ran into quarrels with the organic and anti-GM lobbies, and faced a swingeing, six-page attack in March 2004 from the Sunday Times Magazine, which claimed that the FSA “pays no more account to public opinion than it might to the clucking of a hen.” But opinion surveys show an increase in public recognition for the agency and of trust in its independent judgement during Krebs’s tenure.
If you are a subscriber, please log in »
This article is available to subscribers only
Subscribing to Prospect is the most reliable and convenient way to receive the magazine every month, and offers the best value.Subscription Types:
Online
An online subscription offers you complete and unlimited access to the entire website, including our searchable archive of every back issue of Prospect, and a PDF edition of each new issue: all this for just £20 per year. Purchase an online subscription »Renewal
Renew an existing subscription »Institutional access
If you are a library, business organisation or any other large institution that needs a multi-user licence, you can obtain institutional access.
Share
Subscribe to post comments
Print
