A three-year-old girl living in North Point, Hong Kong, was diagnosed with E. coli O157:H7, the first case of the year, so the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health decided, without providing any details of the how the infection may have happened, that if people cook their food, they could avoid the bug. And they should wash their hands.

That’s all good, but does little to address cross-contamination issues once the bacterium gets into a residence – if that’s where she contracted the bacterium – and once again sends the message that foodborne illness of the nastiest kind can simply be prevented by consumers.

It’s a lot more complicated than that, and why everyone should be seeking to reduce pathogen loads from farm-to-fork.