The idea that ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ seems to have gone out of the window recently. These days it appears that everything can kill you and probably will. Fear is strongest in European countries that have experienced food scares like BSE, but it’s strong in countries like Japan too, where you can now scan the barcode of fish in supermarkets to check who caught it, when and how. Add to this the explosion in food allergies and food fads like low-carb, low GI and low salt and you can start to see why food fanaticism will be a feature of the future.