The British Retail Consortium’s Richard Ali this week made some interesting points about food and the perceptions of food in the UK.

The only concern I had listening to his presentation was that he believed he was being controversial. He was addressing a room of food industry professionals, the vast majority of whom were open to and in accordance with his views.

The people that should be listening to forthright and sound arguments are the very people seen as the biggest drivers of common food perceptions by the BRC - the national media, the government and the sources of most scare stories, NGOs and consumer pressure groups.

It is too easy to believe that ‘they’ don’t want to hear the truth. In many cases, this is a valid point, but the truth must be given a far more thorough airing than it gets from the BRC and various other bodies representing the food trade.

Too often, the preference is to say nothing when the pressure groups release their latest one-eyed propaganda. The signal this gives is of undue reverence. The mass media is there to be exploited, so why is it that people who know what they are talking about so rarely take the opportunity to hog the limelight.

For too long regulation has denied the food industry from furthering its counterclaims through labelling and promotion - Ali is spot on there. But there is no reason why sensible argument shouldn’t blow the doom merchants out of the water.