London

Krebs: trying to rebuild trust.

Zoologist John Krebs, a former chief executive of the UK Natural Environment Research Council, has been appointed head of the country's Food Standards Agency (FSA), created in the wake of the crisis over bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

His nomination has been criticized by the powerful UK Consumers' Association, which expressed its “disappointment” that the government had not appointed a “strong, credible consumer chair”. It argued that this would have been more in line with the food agency's goal of providing impartial assessments based on the best available scientific advice.

But former colleagues of Krebs are unanimous in their opinion that his diplomacy, fairness and ability to take tough decisions make him a good choice to head the FSA. One observer says, “he is not beholden to either side”.

Krebs says his top priorities in the coming weeks will be to meet the representatives of consumer groups and industry to understand “more about what the issues in food safety and standards are”. Krebs describes his job as being “at the interface between science and policy — a tremendously important and exciting area. Decisions [of the FSA] will have a firm basis in science, but science is not the total story”.

Mistrust of public experts is rife since the BSE crisis (see Nature 400, 389; 1999). Krebs says the agency will try to rebuild trust by publishing the advice it gives. “If we make a recommendation on a particular issue and explain publicly why we've come to the conclusion and made the recommendation, and if ministers then choose to go a different way, then the public would quite rightly ask why,” he says.

Krebs has a reputation for taking accurate but unpopular decisions. He was responsible for proposing measures for tackling the issue of whether badgers with tuberculosis pass the disease to cattle. The experiment, which included the culling of around 12,500 badgers over five years, faced strong opposition from conservation and animal-welfare groups (see Nature 394, 821; 1998).

Until last September, Krebs was the chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council. In 1988 he was appointed Royal Society research professor in the department of zoology at the University of Oxford.

In the light of the decision to appoint Krebs, the Consumers' Association is calling for the remaining FSA board members to have a stronger consumer focus. The association says it wants an end to the conflict of interest at the Ministry of Food, Fisheries and Agriculture between protecting consumers and promoting the food industry.

Krebs is certainly expected to do well in terms of the relationship between the FSA and the food ministry. He is also on close terms with the government's chief scientific adviser, Robert May.