News from Oz underlines benefits of growing your own

Reports from Australia surrounding the possibility of Chinese vegetables being contaminated with melamine have underlined how UK consumers should look to their own gardens, greenhouses and allotments to guarantee food safety.

Australian food authorities are investigating reports that the same chemical that poisoned more than 50,000 Chinese babies through baby milk could have spread beyond dairy products and entered the vegetable market, with products such as garlic, peas and mushrooms all on the risk list.

"We are taking this seriously," Food Standards Australia New Zealands (FSANZ) Lydia Buchtmann told AAP.

"Were investigating that, talking to overseas agencies and doing a risk assessment.

"At this stage, we can find no evidence that theyre unsafe, but its certainly something were looking into."

The possibility of melamine entering the UK food market may be remote but, as the news from Australia has proved, you can never be too careful with what you eat.

The only way to guarantee the safety of food is to grow it yourself in your garden or greenhouse.