Politicians are often seen by the public but government officials work anonymously behind the scenes. The author joined the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1972 and by 1992 had risen to become Chief Scientist (Food). During the whole of this period he photographed not only his UK colleagues but also government, academic and industry experts from many countries who worked together to protect the safety and quality of the food chain. This unique collection of well captioned photographs shows individuals at work in their offices, in committee meetings at home and abroad and even relaxing in their spare time. The subjects range from filing clerks to expert scientists of world renown who
collectively formed the Food Guardians between 1972 and 1996. This interesting period included events such as Lysteria hysteria, Salmonella in eggs, Chernobyl, the marketing of the first novel food, Quorn, and development of foods from genetically modified organisms.