France 'spied on food whistleblower'

Salt is a major risk factor in strokes and heart attacks

A scientist who suggested that the French food industry was cashing in by over-salting products, claims he was spied on by France's security services.

It is surprising for a researcher who works for a public research institute that public authorities would take such a measure when one tries to improve a public health problem

Pierre Meneton

Pierre Meneton said in a report to the government that excessive use of salt could be blamed for 75,000 heart attacks each year, a third of which were fatal.

Yet the food industry deliberately opposed cutting back on the salt as it benefited from the sale of soft drinks to parched customers, he alleged.

The latest issue of Le Point magazine claims France's security agency put him under surveillance once the report was completed.

It says spies from the agency placed bugs on his office phone, intercepted calls to his mobile phone and monitored his relatives, friends and colleagues.

The report is denied by the French Interior Ministry, the security agency - the Renseignements Generaux (Central Directorate of General Information) - and the French police.

'Security threat'

"I noticed that it was from the time that we wanted to hand the file to AFSSA (the French Food Safety Agency) in 2000 that we started to have problems," Mr Meneton told La Chaine Info television.

"It is surprising for a researcher who works for a public research institute that public authorities would take such a measure when one tries to improve a public health problem."

His report said that a 30% cut in food salting would hit water and soft drinks sales by $5.4bn a year.

Le Point says the Interior Ministry classified him as a level-two threat to national security on a par with foreign spies and terrorists.

Salt risk

Mr Meneton's report to AFSSA was carried in Le Point in February 2001.

A month later, AFSSA said it backed reductions on salt levels in food.

Sodium is one of salt's major constituents and has been linked to high blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks.

But companies say salt is used not only to help taste, but as a preservative and to improve texture.