Peering at nano-foods
Posted by Andrew Wadge on 08 January 2010 in Science, safety and health
- Share this with:
-
-
-
-
-
Depicting risk
Posted by Andrew Wadge on 17 December 2009 in General interest
I was delighted to welcome Professor David Spiegelhalter to the Agency yesterday to give the fourth in our series of Chief Scientist lectures. David is not only a distinguished statistician, but also the Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge. As a Bayesian statistician, he told us his philosophy was informed by two principles, firstly that probability does not exist and secondly all models are wrong, but some are more useful than others. It's always encouraging in my experience when professors are willing to show some humility about their models!
- Share this with:
-
-
-
-
-
Tighter controls needed on campylobacter
Posted by Andrew Wadge on 07 October 2009 in Science, safety and health
I had an early start this morning, talking about campylobacter on GMTV. Our latest survey shows that it's present on 65% of fresh chicken bought in the UK – so it was a good opportunity to remind people of the need for good hygiene in the kitchen (washing hands, cooking poultry until the juices run clear etc.) and to talk about what we're doing with poultry producers and retailers to tackle this problem.
- Share this with:
-
-
-
-
-
Chemical confusion
Posted by Andrew Wadge on 23 September 2009 in Science in Government
Almost a year ago, Neville Reed blogged on the Royal Society of Chemistry’s website about the alleged existence of ‘100% chemical free’ products. He challenged anyone to suggest a material that he agreed was 100% chemical free. The incentive was £1 million! To date the money remains unclaimed. The most promising contender? A video held on a USB stick. It was ruled out as the USB is made up of chemicals.
- Share this with:
-
-
-
-
-
No air, no bugs… right?
Posted by Andrew Wadge on 14 September 2009 in Science, safety and health
Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Even in the absence of air, some types of bacteria can grow on food – Clostridium botulinum is one of these. We know this nasty bacterium multiplies, without air, even on chilled food stored at temperatures as low as 3°C. Because this bacterium produces a very harmful toxin that causes severe, and sometimes fatal, food poisoning known as botulism, it’s vital that appropriate controls are in place to make foods safe.
- Share this with:
-
-
-
-
-
Science can simply be ambiguous
Posted by Andrew Wadge on 27 August 2009 in Science, safety and health
You may remember that at our Board meeting back in December, we decided that our advice on eating peanuts when pregnant, breast-feeding and weaning needed to change. This is because a major review by the Committee on Toxicity, an independent Advisory Committee, has shown that the science has moved on since 1998 when the evidence was last reviewed. We now know that there is no clear evidence that eating or not eating peanuts or food containing peanuts during these early life stages influences the chances of a child developing a peanut allergy.
- Share this with:
-
-
-
-
-
BA Festival of Science
