This is not an overwhelmingly good news week, as you will read elsewhere in these pages. Another food scare hits the headlines, gangmasters reverse roles and hit out at the industry, and the latest Plimsoll line is that big chunks of the trade are putting their futures in jeopardy with risky business practices.

Just another week in produce then really. All three stories will be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders more in keeping with our Gallic neighbours - and most will carry on regardless.

Human nature dictates that people will generally ignore or disregard negative information until it affects them directly. But commercial logic says the innovative and proactive will thrive. Take your pick.

Whatever the rights and wrongs, any industry is only as strong as its weakest link. In food, you only have to look at the travails of the dairy and meat sectors for further proof of that.

As yet, it is not clear who is supplying contaminated lettuce, who is condoning illegal labour use and who exactly has been overtrading dangerously. The miscreants put not only themselves, but every link of the supply chain in peril by failing to administer their businesses properly.

The build-up of pressure in this industry can be blamed for many of its ills, but common sense and integrity should not be consigned to the past. l