THE British government may have given the wrong advice to people worried about chemical contamination of crops or animal feed. This startling admission appears in a patent application filed by the former Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
In the MAFF patent, four government researchers outline a system for analysing the real and perceived health risks from crops and animal feed contaminated with industrial chemicals, pesticides or drugs. The computerised system is designed to fix flaws in the department鈥檚 previous way of dealing with such queries from the agriculture and food industries.
The old system relied heavily on individual officials鈥� memory, the researchers say, and gave advice to farmers, the food industry and retailers based on rough rules of thumb. 鈥淲hen experts leave or are otherwise not accessible, those given the task of providing advice have to start from scratch and may arrive at different, potentially even irrational, conclusions,鈥� the researchers state in the document. 鈥淓ven experts who provide advice on a regular basis cannot do so with absolute consistency,鈥� they add.
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The researchers say the government also lacked procedures for identifying when incorrect advice had been given, and preventing similar mistakes happening again. 鈥淭here is no means for a formal analysis of the factors leading to the error, nor to ensure that such an error could not recur,鈥� they say.
The new system aims to put the government鈥檚 advice on a more logical footing. 鈥淲e built the system to get rid of the ad hoc approach and remove subjectivity,鈥� says Miles Thomas, one of the patent鈥檚 authors at the Central Science Laboratory in York. The CSL is the main agricultural science lab used by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which took over from MAFF last year.
The computer system devised by Thomas鈥檚 team works out the quantities of certain types of chemical residue that will be left on crops after being treated with pesticides. It can also work out likely residues from veterinary drugs, heavy metals and industrial contaminants in any food or animal feed.
The system then calculates a risk assessment. This is based on a formula that weighs up the government鈥檚 Acceptable Daily Intake for the particular residue against the cost of analysing chemicals in plant material and the strength of public opinion, as shown by media coverage. The system is already in operation, and anyone in the food industry can use it for a fee of 拢750 a year.
But MAFF鈥檚 patent application (GB 2367911) has fallen at the first hurdle: the British Patent Office has declared it is not even worth a full examination. This is most likely because the proposal is a business scheme and these have always been unpatentable in Britain, Europe and most of rest of the world apart from the US and Japan. When contacted by 快猫短视频, Thomas was unaware of the latest twist in the tale.
The application will now very probably be rejected. But the document, including its embarrassing admission of the government鈥檚 past shortcomings, will remain on the public record for anyone to read in print or online.