An all-Ireland survey of the incidence of food poisoning annually is to begin next month. The initiative hopes to give an accurate indication of the level of illness caused by food-borne bacteria.
Dr Patrick Wall, chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, said yesterday that there was gross under-reporting of incidences of food poisoning.
While figures released by the National Disease Surveillance Centre indicate the number of cases of salmonella in the Republic fell from 120 in July 1999 to 59 in July 2000, Dr Wall believes they do not accurately reflect the incidence of food poisoning.
"To become a statistic in Ireland you have to jump over a serious amount of hurdles. You have to be poisoned, go to your doctor, have samples taken and sent away for analysis.
"But most people suffer in silence and take none or just one of these steps. If they go to their doctor they may not have a sample of faeces taken," he said.
He estimates that the real figures for food poisoning in the State could be 100 to 500 times the official figures.
The survey in the Republic will be conducted jointly by the Food Safety Authority and the National Disease Surveillance Centre. It will be conducted in the North by the regional office of the UK Food Safety Standards Agency. The results will be compared and presented by the All Ireland Food Safety Promotion Board.
Some 800 people will be randomly selected for telephone interview every month over the next 12 months, 400 on each side of the Border. They will be asked to volunteer information on whether they suffered diarrhoea, vomiting or other symptoms of gastroenteritis over the previous four weeks.
Dr Wall explained that the survey will run for a year because different bacteria are more active at different times of the year. E. coli 0157, which is associated with undercooked meat and burgers, is more prominent in summer while campylobacter, usually picked up from poultry, is more common in spring.