The Health and Safety Inspectorate yesterday issued guidelines on the consumption of fish, particularly on how to check that it is fresh, to avoid getting food poisoning.

Malta always has the pre-conception that authorities such as this are there in name only, but in this particular case, one could not be more mistaken. Every month, the inspectorate furnishes the facts and figures of its activities. One would be surprised. Hundreds of kilogrammes of foodstuffs are routinely destroyed by the inspectorate and random inspections are carried out.

The inspectorate always goes on to list the fines it dishes out, along with any remedial action it instructs and follows up. The efficiency, at least on paper, is startling.

But the inspectorate, as shown by its release yesterday, is also pro-active. Even those who might think they know what they are doing (in terms of fresh fish, the subject matter), can still learn from the instructions given out.

All too often, we are too quick to judge and criticise, but perhaps such attitudes are sometimes down to our own ignorance of the situation. We criticise the ALE which monitors hunting, yet we forget that they have a small staff. We criticise the government, yet the world is in a bad situation. We criticise the Church, yet we forget that there are many who do a brilliant job. The list can go on and on. They do say that ignorance is bliss, perhaps this is true. But it is then not fair to denigrate and judge others just because we have not bothered to arm ourselves with the facts, which are readily available.

But to go back to the fish issue, the contents of the announcement prove that the inspectorate is doing its best to prevent outbreaks of food poisoning. It said that there were some 8 outbreaks and 8 individual cases of food poisoning affecting some 28 people in total. It said its aims were to inform the public of how to check for signs of contaminated fish, in an effort to avoid more cases and outbreaks.

The general public should thank these people. These are the ones on the front line every day, checking to make sure that milk has not been left out on a shop doorstep because the shopkeeper is late. They randomly sample foods and march straight into kitchens and preparation areas to ensure that all is in order. We rarely think of people who do such a job, without making a fuss. What we should perhaps do, is listen to them more.