Birmingham Food Council Directors Dr John Middleton and Professor Jim Parle have written an article on food crime from a doctors perspective; published by the British Medical Journal today.
The key concerns they note are:
- the impact adulterated food could have on people with food allergies;
- the high probability that criminal operations, capable of adulterating meat wouldn’t be fussy about throwing in tainted or diseased meat; and
- the fact that we don’t know the possible implications of introducing new ‘foods’ (such as horsemeat) into our food chain.
You can read the full text of Food crime – why should doctors care here.
Since Jim & John published their article in the BMJ, John heard about this and brought this to my attention: Martin McKee (@martinmckee) and Lucy Reynolds wrote this paper: Organised crime and the efforts to combat it: A cause for public health it in the journal Globalization & Health in 2010.