New Chernobyl fear

The food industry could be vulnerable to a nuclear accident if surveillance on radioactive contamination is reduced, according to an expert.

Dr Richard Burt is president of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) and a former head of contamination monitoring within the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

He said that monitoring around Britain's nuclear power stations continued to show a low contamination threat. Consequently, there was pressure from some at the FSA to reduce surveillance work in favour of other activities. However, with the government considering a new nuclear power plant building programme, that would be a mistake, said Burt, even though low levels of radionuclide contamination are usually detected by surveys.

"If you don't keep those surveys going, those skills will go and if you have another Chernobyl or you have an accident you are going to need those skills," he said. "If something goes wrong, it is going to go wrong big time."

The FSA continues to come under fire for replacing its physical science activities with social sciences since Dame Deirdre Hutton replaced Sir John Krebs as chair in July 2005. But Hutton strongly refuted this at the Federation of Bakers' annual conference last month.

"Science is the bedrock of the agency," she said. "I am fiercely protective of the retention of scientific rigour. We have made a number of changes to strengthen science. Science is fundamental to our risk assessment."

But Burt claimed: "If you speak to people within the FSA there is a feeling that the science is under pressure because they want to be more consumer friendly. You've got to look at it in a strategic sense, which a non-scientist might not appreciate."

Food minister Lord Jeff Rooker said he had been assured by experts that criticism of reductions in FSA's science base was unfounded, adding: "If this is true, I would be concerned, because the science is important."

After the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former USSR in 1986, the FSA has continued to monitor farms hit by radioactive contamination. Further surveys are planned - to release farms from restrictions when radioactivity in sheep is within safety limits.