Krebs gets food safety job
1 December 1999
Krebs gets food safety job
THE first head of the new Food Standards Agency (FSA) has been confirmed as Sir John Krebs, a zoologist and expert on animal behaviour.
Krebs appointment, which was tipped by the Financial Times last week, is viewed with surprise.
He is seen as an outsider who has leapt over more favoured candidates.
Mr Krebs, until September the head of the Natural Environment Research Council, came to prominence as the architect of the controversial badger cull to establish a link between badgers and bovine tuberculosis.
When the FSA comes into being on 1 April, it will have an annual budget of £125 million and a staff of 500.
It will have the power to order on-the-spot checks and surveillance operations on any person or industry.
Staff will also be allowed to enter premises and inspect the health records of people employed in the food industry.