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Food‐borne infections due to campylobacter, shigella, salmonella and E. coli 0157 have shown a real increase three to four fold. Argues that between the mid‐1980s and 1992 the reasons are multifactorial and include unsafe farming methods, possibly a deterioration in water quality, problems associated with moist food processing and changes in social habitats.

Some of the disadvantages of the cook‐chill method of catering are described. The technique has been developed in a haphazard and rather unscientific manner and, although becoming increasingly widespread, serious doubts are cast on its safety vis‐á‐vis health.

Investigates the conditions surrounding the spread of the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes and the implications for food safety, including cook‐chill food production, temperature, contamination and storage. Concludes that food can never be made entirely microbiologically safe but the risks can be minimized.

Intensive methods of farming and food processing are particularly likely to result in food inadequate in n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and also in folic acid. These fatty acids are required for numerous metabolic functions including protection against heart attacks. Folic acid is essential for a baby′s developing nervous system.

Of the many warnings of dangerous food given by the Government between 1988 and 1992, it is only with listeriosis that there is any evidence of improvement. The whole basis of Government action on BSE has now been shown to be flawed in that the extraordinarily optimistic hope that cattle would prove to be a dead‐end for the infection has been discredited. The chance of a large number of people succumbing from a BSE‐like illness next century is about 70 per cent. The salmonella in eggs problem is not solved because contaminated infected laying flocks have been replaced by further infected flocks. Intensive farming is beset by problems additional to that of microbial safety. These include evidence of reduced nutritional quality of the food, particularly of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Moist food processing and retailing still provide major risks to consumers because new legislation is too lax. Thus most cooked food can be kept indefinitely at temperatures of 50°C or 8°C. One bacterium which can grow at low temperatures is E. coli 0157, the incidence of which has increased during the last few years. This is transferred through food from cattle and causes acute gastro‐enteritis, followed by kidney failure, particularly in children.

Three new microwave ovens that had been “approved” by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) were each used to heat ten convenience meals. These meals were designed for microwave reheating and packet instructions were followed exactly. The foods were inoculated with 10⊃5−10⊃6/g of both S. typhimurium and L. monocytogenes, and core temperatures and bacterial numbers were measured before and after heating. Some viable listeria were still present in 97 per cent of the meals and viable salmonella in 80 per cent after heating. End core temperatures were much lower than expected with one food only reaching 43°C. The three types of microwave gave similar results. The reasons for these findings and their implications are discussed.

Food has only recently been implicated as the major culprit in human acquisition of listeriosis. Procedures need to be developed for its control, notably cleanliness, and the specific problems associated with this bacterium – for instance the incubation period of between five days and six weeks – are discussed.

Defines the number of recorded cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in the UK as comprising those reported to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) and checked by them using histopathological techniques. Proposes that, if it is assumed that BSE is a similar condition to other mammalian transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), and if other specific assumptions are made, it is possible to estimate the true number of cases of BSE and, hence, the number of human beings who have been infected in the UK. States that approximately 6.87 per cent of cattle born in 1988 became infected with BSE, with lower numbers in antecedent years, and that BSE cases reported in the UK represent approximately 23 per cent of the cattle which have become infected and are hence potentially infective to other animals, including man. Discloses the fact that TSEs of animals, of which BSE is one, can be transmitted to a mean of at least 70 per cent of other species and that oral transmission has been successful. Uses the potential levels of infectivity of the bovine products present in human food in the UK from 1984 to 1997, together with data as to individual diets within the population, to assess the number of people who would be expected to have eaten the minimum potentially infective dose or more. Discusses the possible effects on human health.

Evidence for the spread of the agent responsible for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) continues to accrue. Hopes that the ban on feeding concentrates to cattle in July 1988 would result in the resolution of the epidemic have not been fulfilled, since the number of BSE cases continues to rise. It is proposed that the infective agent of BSE is primarily a cattle pathogen, perhaps initially spread by contaminated feed, but in recent years propagated chiefly by maternal (vertical) transmission with variable manifestation of the clinical disease. If this is correct, the implications for farming, and possibly also for human health, are grave.

The technological developments in mass catering need to remain under close microbiological and epidemiological scrutiny. There is, however, no evidence at present to suggest that cook‐chill catering is less safe than conventional catering methods and an increasing body of evidence to suggest the opposite.