ABSTRACT
Safe food — it is what every individual expects in every mouthful and every government strives to give its populace. Since food is the object of our earliest preferences and the subject of our strongest prejudices, food safety is a gut issue. Yet what seems on the surface to be both basic and imperative is not at all simple, and in fact, is not achievable in the absolute sense. It is extremely hard to accept even the idea that food is relatively — not absolutely — safe. What appears to threaten food, threatens in a very direct and visceral way.
