Who are you going to call?

THE Government is watching to make sure the food we eat is safe.

Isn't it? The answer is yes, but you would need a map and a guide book to find out which department is in charge of what foodstuff. Responsibility is fragmented, with various aspects involving the Departments of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (DAFF); Health; Enterprise and Employment; Marine; Environment; Tourism and Trade; and Transport, Energy and Communications.

Do we need this level of division? The chairman of the new Food Safety Authority and president of Dublin City University, Dr Danny O'Hare, certainly understands it, although doesn't comment on its wisdom. The structure "is highly complex because food is such a broad area", he suggests.

In an ideal world there could be a "neat solution" with a single department responsible for everything, he says, but it is probably not achievable given the devolvement of responsibility down to local authority and health board level.

The following hypothetical food hygiene problem shows some of the complexity. Suppose you get ill after a meal in a local restaurant. You could complain to the owner, but what if the responsibility for the contamination lay further back down the line?

If it was a bad beef burger, you could talk to DAFF, but if it was a veggie burger, then complain to the Department of Health. Unless the water used at the restaurant or factory was polluted, in which case visit Environment. But if there were - chemical residues in the food, then go back to DAFF - unless the veggie burger contained genetically modified soyabeans, in which case you should return to Environment.

But if you think that the burger was also too small for the money charged, then talk to Enterprise and Employment which is responsible for the Director of Consumer Affairs. You might also complain to it if you think that some dodgy plastic packaging around the burger made you ill, or if there was a problem with improper labelling.

On the other hand, if the label problem related to nutritional claims, for example a claim that the veggie burger would make you live longer, then go over to Health.

Maybe it was the beer you had with the burger that made you unwell, in which case you should stay with Health, which is in charge of brewery hygiene, but if the problem was with the prawn cocktail starter then go and bother Marine.

However, if you think there was nuclear radiation in your prawns then contact Transport, Energy and Communications - it's responsible for the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland which can test for such pollution. But if it was good, old fashioned pollution, as is discharged from sewage plants, then it is bacteriological and so, back to Health. But you would want to be sure it is bacteriological, because if it was chemical it should be DAFF. Unless it is metal contamination which should be referred to Health.

IF - in the burger, the prawns or the beer - you discover a foreign body, or, still worse, a small piece of a careless employee, then you have a choice. Contact your nearest environmental health officer employed by the health board and invoke Department of Health regulations. The failure could be bad factory staff safety practice, so call in the Health and Safety Authority which is Enterprise and Employment's responsibility.

Maybe the unsavoury contribution only arose in the restaurant's kitchen, in which case it could be covered by the HSA, or it might be the result of bad staff training. The latter falls into the hands of CERT, overseen by Tourism and Trade.

This example is fanciful, but also accurate in terms of ultimate responsibility. Things might get a bit simpler for the consumer, however, when the Food Safety Authority comes into its own. Draft legislation is at "an advanced stage and due out any time", Dr O'Hare says. "The focus for us is the consumer, reassuring the consumer but based on facts rather than image."

He describes the authority as a "regulator of regulators", which will keep an eye on all aspects of food safety across all departments. "There will be very wide ranging powers," he says, including the power to prosecute offenders, ministers or departments.