Did anyone else watch the the Reporting Scotland bulletin yesterday which covered the story about some restaurants switching cheap beef for lamb in their dishes?

The story had first surfaced in The Sunday Mail that day. The substitution of one meat for another in some restaurants was bad news and a further blow for consumer confidence in the food chain. It’s an important story and one worth covering in depth.

However, what was most surprising to me was that the BBC report felt it necessary to reassure viewers that properly sourced and cooked beef posed no threat to the people who ate it.

I’m not sure why they included that line. Was the reporter genuinely trying to reassure viewers that beef is safe to eat?

We’ve been eating it for thousands of years. Has something changed?

Has the general public really become so dislocated from the idea of raw ingredients that we need to be told that beef is fit for human consumption?

There is no denying that the food adulteration story makes for grim reading and both consumers and trading standards should push hard for such malpractices to be stamped out.

That said, there does seem to be a danger that genuine stories like this one are being caught up in a wider hysteria which portrays all food as dangerous.

To paraphrase The Sun, will careless pork really cost lives?

No is the answer. Moderation is the key to healthy eating as pointed out by Joanna Blythman in the Daily Mail and Luisa Dillner in the Guardian.