Two statements. You might guess that they were both from The Public Inquiry into the September 2005 Outbreak of E.coli 0157 in South Wales, which was published on 19 March 2009.

You would though be wrong. The first was made by President Barack Obama announcing tough new measures for food safety control in the USA.

Similar statements in two different countries within days of each other concerning the safety of food provided to children. This is a global problem and has a global impact, yet few food manufactures, caterers and retailers handling food will be aware of these statements or more importantly, the importance of their message.

Professor Pennington, Chairman of this inquiry and also the author of a report into the 1996 outbreak of E.coli in central Scotland said : "I had hoped that the lessons from the shocking events in 1996 would stay in peoples minds". He continues "But comparison with the failures that led to this outbreak in South Wales [...] shows that this has not been the case."

We all have lessons to learn.

A similar outbreak could happen to you. Are you prepared? Are your staff adequately trained? Is there sufficient supervision? Are the records genuine? Can you sleep at night?

Over the next few months in The Probe, we will examine each element of the failures that resulted in this outbreak and the controls you need to have in place to prevent a reoccurrence.