Regulation in Business

One of the aspects of the food and cooking videos that I wanted to get right was the true facts regarding healthy eating as well as ensuring that I was not inadvertently passing on any bad practices regarding hygiene Thus, when I first was thinking of the idea I contacted a team from the local NHS National Health Service. In email exchanges and telephone conversations the people I was talking with were really enthusiastic and were wanting to help. The people I was talking to realised that using new media and new ideas could really help get good information out to people.

Anyway while I am fully aware of the messages like eat five different fruit and vegetables per day, I wanted to know if there were any other details like that that I could include. Therefore a meeting was set up where I took a DVD of some of the footage I had already shot and my notes so that I could look at making adjustments.

While I got some information at that meeting two of the main people that I was supposed to be meeting were ill that day. So it was rearranged for today Monday. Well I went along ready to learn. Therefore I was ready to be criticised but I could not believe some of the comments that one of the people there.

Now while I wanted to keep this bit as a surprise, I have been using glove puppets in the films. These parts are filmed separately to the cooking. But when edited form an important part of the films. Now this chap, who is a hygiene specialist was not happy with me using them as he said that they were a cross contamination risk. Now while I would not expect him to now or understand the finer details of film making, I would have thought that in this day and age people would understand that events in a film are not always shot in the sequence they are in the final edit. Therefore I had to explain that to him. While he accepted that he still said that some of the people watching the videos could emulate me and give themselves food poisoning by handling food with glove puppets.

Well at this point I really thought that he was playing a joke on me, as I could not take that seriously. But he was not, he was being serious. I was also given a list of other criticisms; including the length of my hair even though its tied up and I am wearing a cooks hat to keep it in place. Then I was told I should be using plastic chopping boards and not wooden ones. And while he agreed that my kitchen looks clean in the films, he said that I should have ensured that my kitchen met catering standards.

Well by this point I was getting really angry with him. I kept my temper but I spoke to him as though he was a retarded child explaining that the whole idea was to show people that you do not need a fancy kitchen or expensive equipment to cook with. As part of the reason for doing this is to help educate people who do not know how to cook, then what he was wanting me to do would impose serious barriers on people who are already reluctant cooks.

Anyway after this exchange one of the two women called for a coffee break. When we returned this chap was not there. The rest of the meeting went very well and the two women were positive and helpful. In fact they were very supportive of the ideas I was putting forward. At the very end they admitted that the chap was upset as he had wanted the organisation to do something similar to what I am doing and he was there to see if the organisation should be supporting what I am doing financially. Well I was not expecting or even seeking that from them, so if someone had waved a feather around I would have been on the floor.

Now, I had not been seeking financial support but it could come in very useful, however I did say that I would have to retain editorial control if any money was forthcoming. Thus while the meeting was not an easy one, on the whole it appears to be have been a positive meeting.

However, one aspect that struck me regarding the meeting was the way that in some aspects of food the regulation seems to be over the top. While hygiene is very important, most of it should be common sense. And while folks need to understand what you need to do to avoid food poisoning, often the messages given just make people scared of food and cooking. Also that means that far to often it is the food industry and the supermarkets that are left to prepare our food. Thus further de-skilling people.

Anyway, I am a lot more confident that I am on the right track with what I am doing. But to go off on a tangent though, in the news is the story of a major financial fraud. It strikes me that it strange that in some areas where regulation was needed the regulation was seriously diluted. If there had been better regulation of the financial markets and the banks then most of the financial problems we have now. Nor could that fraud have happened with proper regulatory oversight. Yet in Britain and Europe when it comes to food, the regulations are gold plated. When the real problem is lack of educating for the public. Also the regulations are aimed towards increased profits for the food industry. To my way of thinking if all regulations were primarily aimed at helping the public and not big business then many of the problems that always come up would just be eliminated.