Don't panic

The daily Postimees cautions against panic: "Although we tend to associate European agricultural policy with subsidies for farming businesses, attention is now turning to the much more important issue of food safety. The majority of European standards governing production are aimed at guaranteeing that the food that lands on citizens' tables is indeed clean and safe. The dioxin panic that broke out on the weekend is more an example of what the hundreds if not thousands of complicated regulations are supposed to achieve. If manufacturers and processors were not subject to these restrictions the food we eat each day would contain many more contaminants and would therefore pose a greater threat to our health. Reports on scandals should therefore not be taken too seriously, particularly as according to experts the levels by which the limits were exceeded in the case of Irish pork do not pose a genuine threat."

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