Editorial

Abstract

Hardly a week passes by without issues of food safety, nutrition and health making the headlines in the popular media. One of the immediately recent issues was of course the  outbreak of Escherichia coli associated with bean sprouts being grown in Germany. This led to demands in some parts of the world for all food products of German origin to be remove from the shelves of retailers. An over-reaction? Perhaps so, since the early recognition of the problem was clouded with a degree of uncertainty as to the precise origins of the problem.