THOUGH the Pennington report into the E.coli food poisoning which killed more than 20 people in Scotland avoids saying what caused the outbreak, it does point to a prime suspect - government deregulation of hygiene regulations.

For calling for a tightening of standards covering meat production "from the farm to the fork," the report says that such tragedies could be avoided if the government abandoned its "light touch" approach to enforcement of the regulations.

For though the government's belief in market disciplines may lead it to favour deregulation and the cutting of red tape, surely food safety is one area in which relaxation of standards is courting trouble. Did we not see that with the BSE crisis - stemming from the relaxation of rules covering animal foodstuffs? Now, the lesson of Lanarkshire makes it tragically clear.

And, late in the day, the government learns it by accepting en bloc the findings of the Professor Pennington's inquiry.

But has not the report missed something out? It avoids calling for an independent food agency to protect consumers from lax standards.

As the BSE scare convinced many people, the relationship between the Ministry of Agriculture and food producers is a too cosy one for the consumers' good.

We need firm hygiene regulations properly policed by a body concerned with the safety of those at the fork end of the food chain, not one concerned with the prosperity of those at the farm end and in between.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.