Food scares are fortunately extremely rare in this country, and even when incidences do occur - such as the Irish pork dioxin crisis in December 2008 or the outbreak of avian flu on turkey farms the same year - human casualties are almost unheard of.

Stringent UK standards mean situations like the recent US spinach affair or Chinese melamine milk scandal, where people were taken seriously ill and even died, do not tend to be repeated here.

However, sales can be affected, particularly if newspaper headlines blow situations out of all proportion, and that’s exactly what the trade is concerned about with the current situation on morpholine.

The Fresh Produce Consortium has lambasted the Food Standards Agency for its “disproportionate” response and the fear is that if the tabloids get hold of the story, there could be hysterical calls for a mass recall of produce from shelves and a boycott of a wide range of fruit. That would be a disastrous outcome with very little tangible benefit as morpholine in fruit production is not generally regarded as dangerous to human health.

The whole incident goes to show why we are still crying out for harmonised global standards for the use of chemicals and other agents. At last week’s GlobalGAP conference, an exasperated Asda executive asked when such standards might come in, only to be essentially told by an EU official: “Not in your lifetime, sunshine.” I paraphrase, of course, but the sentiment was clear.

And that’s why this won’t be the last incident of its kind.