The 2014 Keith Farrer Award of Merit was awarded at this year’s AIFST Convention to Dr Tom Ross for his outstanding contribution to food science. This article is based on his address.

Most people know the basic rules of food hygiene, don’t they? They’re simple rules that reflect our awareness that invisible microbes might make us sick, to minimise contamination of food and limit growth of those organisms if contamination occurs, or to kill them before we eat the food. It’s hardly rocket science, is it? And if these are simple rules that ordinary people apply, how much safer must it be when food professionals prepare and process foods?

If it’s that easy, then it’s hard to understand why – particularly given the enormous advances in biological science and technology over the last few decades – there seems to have been no reduction in the incidence of microbial food-borne illness in decades.

Click here to read the full article in Food Australia magazine.