Eat in restaurants, it makes you sick
…or so the FSA would have you think. Ian McKerracher just can't believe it.
The latest stunt from the Food Standards Agency, no doubt thought up by some marketing genius, is to send a sick bag, such as you get in aircraft seat pockets, to restaurants. On these is printed a message highlighting the scale of food poisoning in this country and four key tips on food safety.
Other than the FSA's logo, there is no other message - no accompanying letter, no contact details, no number to phone, nothing.
Everyone I have spoken to in the industry has been appalled by this, and I continue to get calls from irate restaurateurs saying how insulted and offended they are.
So what on earth is going on?
The FSA argues, quite rightly, that reduction of food-borne illness remains a priority and, in order to meet its targets, its campaigns to raise awareness and encourage best practice are justified.
I have no problem with this, and the Restaurant Association, along with many other organisations in our industry, is actively engaged in similarly pressing home the message that food safety is of paramount importance.
The FSA also argues that shock tactics work and that stunts such as the one described above do grab people's attention. No argument there, either, as this very column proves.
What I do have a big problem with is how it was done. Where the FSA has got things horribly wrong is in putting up the backs of the people it should want to have on its side - restaurateurs.
If you really want to work with an industry to improve food safety, you surely don't go about it by singling out restaurants, with no explanation or context, and implying that if you eat in their establishments it will make you sick. Nor do you decide on a campaign device like this without consulting the industry you want to engage.
It seems a grotesque waste of taxpayers' money and a serious error of judgment. When I challenged the chief executive of the FSA, Geoffrey Podger, on this, he was unrepentant, saying that the campaign methods had been authorised at the highest level.
What saddens and frustrates me most about this is that this issue is too important to trivialise and sensationalise in this way.
There is much good work being done at present, aimed at finding ways of overcoming the barriers that currently exist to better adoption of food safety practices, not least of which is the DTI-funded Food Safety Partnerships project of the Restaurant Association and the Hospitality Training Foundation.
The hard part, I admit, is getting the message across to those restaurateurs who don't really care about what is going on, but if the FSA really wants to help the restaurant industry achieve better food safety levels, it had better think again about the methods it employs.
Ian McKerracher is chief executive of the Restaurant Association
