It was trusted and seen as properly regulated. Frewer was also cited as saying another reason for the escalating concerns about foods is that many once-feared illnesses, such as polio, smallpox and scarlet fever, are preventable or curable now. That has prompted people to magnify other worries instead. Burke quips that there would be fewer food scares if war broke out. The story adds that perhaps not surprisingly, then, the actions of ecoterrorists, who have destroyed at least 30 of more than 300 crop trials in the past few years, take place in a blaze of admiring publicity.
Prosecutions are rare for fear of copycat action and adverse press.
The reactions to the possible hazards of food, real or imagined, have raised questions about exactly what the public should be told and when. Both the scientific community and consumer groups agree that the current ad hoc system of reporting food concerns is inadequate. Real problems could be overlooked. For instance, a report from the Food Commission, a British lobbying group, states that some nut imports are contaminated with deadly aflatoxins, a potent liver carcinogen. MAFF has admitted the problem, but the finding has gone almost unnoticed and unreported.