The " Food Safety " Issue !

There are a multitude of brands of Tuna on the shelves of Australian supermarkets, but none of them are processed and canned in this country.  Tuna processing is concentrated in Thailand and we are now experiencing a safety scare.  Cases of food poisoning have been traced back to contaminated Tuna and this has thrown the spotlight on the working conditions and hygiene in place where most of the world''s Tuna begins it's journey to world markets.

It is not a pretty picture.  The term "sweatshop "could describe the living conditions of the huge migrant workforce and all the impetus is on speed and cost savings.  There are reports of the process being carried out in warehouses baking in the tropical sun and lacking air conditioning and stock waiting for transport without the protection of refrigeration.  A huge factory processes the multitude of brands, including those we know and have trusted for generations, but there is little difference in the way this range - from prestige to "El Cheapo " are treated in the canning process.

It was not always that way.   We used to have a vibrant Tuna industry here on the south coast of New South Wales.   The fishing town of Eden was home to the Safcol cannery and it employed over two hundred locals and was serviced by a fleet of forty Tuna boats working our offshore waters.  It is claimed that Thai Tuna was deliberately under priced to reduce Australian Tuna sales and force the closure of our cannery - and that happened in 1999.   Another Australian cannery at Port Lincoln in South Australia suffered a similar fate in 2010.

When such an industry closes - it is gone forever.   We live in a world where the vast bulk of groceries are in the hands of giant conglomerates and the bean counters who run them make decisions based on cost savings as fine as a percentage point in the dollar.  An entire industry and the workers who rely on it for a living can be sacrificed in one country if relocating improves the bottom line by a fraction.

That is rationalized by the outlook on globalization.  By that credo we do not make products that require intensity of labour in high wage countries, but this is being distorted by the steady rise of automation.  The workers who attracted industry to low wage countries are being displaced by forms of automation - and such industries constantly relocating to even lower wage areas to keep shaving production costs to the minimum.

The end result is the food safety problem we are now experiencing with Tuna.  The relentless pressure to lower production costs and increase volumes leads to short cuts and unsafe handling of the product.  No doubt the publicity will result in a sharp fall in Tuna purchases in Australian supermarkets and Tuna dishes will be scarce in the catering trade to allay the fears of diners. That would seem an inevitable aftermath of a food poisoning scare, and eventually sales will return to normal once the memory fades.

What concerns many people is the fact that Australia's self sufficiency in food is slowly slipping away.   We are a food growing nation - but now not a food processing nation.   There was uproar when a fruit canning company was threatened with closing it's doors, but the withering away of the many firms that processed Australian produce seems relentless.   Entrepreneur Dick Smith tried to kindle a passion for Australian branded products when he setup production facilities and shamed the grocery duopoly into putting these Australian brands on their supermarket shelves - but the Australian public virtually ignored them - and they no longer exist.

If world events ever threaten the transportation of commerce, we will sorely miss the self sufficiency that once made this country an independent "stand alone "when it came to it's food supply !