Body Story

• 1959: The cranberry scare

• 1988: The Edwina Currie fiasco

• 1989: The alar apple scare

• 1995: Mad cow disease

• 1996: E. coli

• 1999: Dioxin

• Ongoing: GM food

Early food scares were usually linked to the use of pesticides and weed killers on crops. These days, our concerns vary widely, from mutant tomatoes to mad cows. In most cases food scares flare up and die down without there having been any real threat to public health for the duration.

• 1959: The cranberry scare
In the United States, the use of aminotriazole, a weed killer, on cranberry crops led to widespread panic when it was revealed that when the substance was fed to rats, it produced cancer of the thyroid. Although humans would have had to eat thousands of pounds of berries in order to receive a dose strong enough to produce the same effect, the then secretary of state for health commented that, to be on the safe side, housewives should not buy cranberries. This led to a ban on cranberry sales in several states. The remark, made two weeks before Thanksgiving, when Americans traditionally eat their turkey with cranberry sauce, could not have been more ill-timed.

• 1988: The Edwina Currie fiasco
Although salmonella poisoning is a permanent problem — there are around 30,000 reported cases in England and Wales each year — the most famous, or infamous, salmonella scare came in 1988, when Edwina Currie, then junior health minister, was forced to resign after saying that most of the UK's eggs were contaminated with salmonella. Four million hens were slaughtered and nearly 400 million surplus eggs were destroyed as demand for eggs slumped.

• 1989: The alar apple scare
One of the worst US food scares was linked to a chemical called alar, which is used to prevent apples from dropping from trees prematurely. Tests carried out in the 1970s and 1980s showed that a by-product of alar caused lung and kidney tumours in mice. Once again, in order for the same effects to occur, humans would have had to ingest vast quantities of the product concerned — in this case thousands of quarts of apple juice every day. Nevertheless, when alar was called 'the most potent cancer-causing agent in our food supply' on a US television programme, there was a hysterical public reaction: one parent sent state troopers chasing after a school bus in order to confiscate the fruit in her child's lunch box.

• 1995: Mad cow disease
The food scare to end all food scares. Bovine spongiform encephalytis (BSE), commonly known as 'mad cow disease', is linked to the fatal human disease, Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Although BSE, which is also known as scrapie, was first recorded as far back as 1732, it was not until recently that it became a serious problem for humans, as the practice of using meat by-products in cattle feed became increasingly common. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, more than 100,000 cattle were diagnosed as having the disease and, in 1995, the first case of BSE-related CJD in a human was reported. In 1996, beef exports to Europe were banned, though the EU ban was lifted in 1999.

• 1996: E. coli
As with salmonella, E. coli poisoning is a permanent problem, affecting thousands of people every year. The worst outbreak in recent years happened in Lanarkshire in Scotland, where 21 people died.

• 1999: Dioxin
Hundreds of farms in Belgium received supplies of animal feed contaminated with dioxin, a carcinogenic chemical by-product created during the manufacture of herbicides, in 1999. Although in fact levels of the chemical were extremely low, temporary export bans on meat and poultry products were slapped on the Belgians by many nations. Since almost all meat and dairy products were thought to be at risk, the Belgians were forced to stick either to fruit and vegetables or to their traditional diet of moules frites (mussels and chips) until the brouhaha died down.

• Ongoing: GM food
The debate over genetically modified (GM) food is likely to rage on for years, if not decades, to come. Some scientists fear that genetically engineered plants may contaminate wild plant populations, exacerbating weed problems, and that engineered fish may alter ecosystems and even drive some wild populations to extinction. It is also feared that GM food could produce new allergens or toxins. But supporters say that GM plants can produce bigger yields and better, longer-lasting crops, and that crops modified to resist pests reduces farmers' dependence on chemicals.

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