Food fight at the market

archives.foodsafety.ksu.edu

May 18, 2006
The Kingston Whig-Standard

Dr. Sheela Basrur, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, responsible for such weighty tasks as helping co-ordinate the response if there were another SARS outbreak, is, according to this editorial currently making a meal out of the produce sold at farmers' markets and the dinners served at churches.

Basrur and some of her colleagues think markets need better regulation to protect the public from potential food-borne diseases congealing in jars of jam or on cobs of corn.

The editorial notes that Ontario's health ministry is currently considering a 48-page report of proposals for food safety at farmers' markets. Basrur has also suggested such rules be broadly applied to community functions such as church dinners.

Ministry officials will spend the summer drafting new regulations for markets. Health Minister George Smitherman (who, it must be conceded, knows a thing or two about ingesting unhealthy substances) wants a policy in place by fall. But as reporter James Wallace noted this week in The Whig-Standard, Basrur can't actually cite a case of food-related illness emanating from a farmers' market. Still, she is convinced the problem is there and is simply under-reported.

The editorial goes on to say that most of us have bought produce from farmers' markets. We're pretty good at testing tomatoes, examining asparagus and reviewing radishes. Are we really incapable of asking questions about how the food was grown and transported to market? Are we too stupid to assess the credibility of the farmers, to discover who is considered reputable and who is known as longstanding producer of fine fare?