Pip Keane of New Zealand’s Sunday Star Times writes in this opinion piece that over the past year, we’ve had three major food safety scares in New Zealand: First it was Yersinia that made dozens of people very very ill. There was a lot of fuss about lettuces.  But was it lettuces or was it carrots? Or something else?  Why did MPI wait weeks to tell us about the initial outbreak and why haven’t they told us what caused it? If I’d contracted Yersinia I’d want to know. What precautions have been taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again?

Even worse, in the past  few weeks the Sunday Star-Times has revealed a strain of antibiotic-resistant campylobacter spreading through our poultry flocks – but again, which poultry flocks? Three out of four of our chicken producers have tested positive. So why won’t MPI tell us which chickens to steer clear of? Why aren’t chickens being recalled until we know? As a mother and a consumer I have a right to know and a right to choose which products to spend my money on.

And now we have a hepatitis A berry scare. At least Mike Glover from Fruzio is front-footing it. That’s refreshing.  Our poultry companies could take a leaf from his book and do the same. I want to know what I’m eating. Nobody deserves to get sick through no fault of their own. We all have a right to know what’s in our food.

Since the Ministry of Primary Industries took charge of food safety, it’s become apparent they have an enormous conflict of interest. The ministry’s first priority is not protecting consumers – it’s protecting our food producers.

This endangers the very primary producers that MPI is trying to help. Sweeping problems under the carpet helps no one.

The government should wrest responsibility for food safety investigations away from MPI and return it to the health authorities, whose sole focus is public health.

Greater openness and accountability about bugs in our food will help strengthen the integrity of the New Zealand food brand in global markets – and keep us all safe.