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Food has only recently been implicated as the major culprit in human acquisition of listeriosis. Procedures need to be developed for its control, notably cleanliness, and the specific problems associated with this bacterium – for instance the incubation period of between five days and six weeks – are discussed.

Food irradiation, typified by gamma rays from a cobalt 60 source, results in discontinuous or focal chemical damage to food components and micro‐organisms. A host of variables make the identification of a suitable dose for any food item difficult. There are so few products suitable for this treatment that it will do little to reduce the incidence of food poisoning. Before irradiation is used, the particular product should be adequately researched under operational conditions.

Evidence for the spread of the agent responsible for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) continues to accrue. Hopes that the ban on feeding concentrates to cattle in July 1988 would result in the resolution of the epidemic have not been fulfilled, since the number of BSE cases continues to rise. It is proposed that the infective agent of BSE is primarily a cattle pathogen, perhaps initially spread by contaminated feed, but in recent years propagated chiefly by maternal (vertical) transmission with variable manifestation of the clinical disease. If this is correct, the implications for farming, and possibly also for human health, are grave.

Intensive methods of farming and food processing are particularly likely to result in food inadequate in n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and also in folic acid. These fatty acids are required for numerous metabolic functions including protection against heart attacks. Folic acid is essential for a baby′s developing nervous system.

It is argued that food poisoning from salmonella‐infected food is serious and that there has been a dramatic and recent rise in the incidence of such poisoning which is accounted for by Salmonella enteritidis type 4, the source of which is eggs. The evidence for these claims is presented, the scale of the problem defined, and advice to the public given. Proposals for future controls in laying hens are suggested.

Three events of significance to this country took place in 1899 – the British Food Journal was launched, Australia retained the Ashes, and the Boer War hostilities commenced. If challenged on the order of their importance, cricketers and Empire‐builders may be excused their preference. However, looking at it purely from the standpoint of pro bono publico, the dispassionate observer must surely opt for the birth of a certain publication as being ultimately the most beneficial of the three.

Of the many warnings of dangerous food given by the Government between 1988 and 1992, it is only with listeriosis that there is any evidence of improvement. The whole basis of Government action on BSE has now been shown to be flawed in that the extraordinarily optimistic hope that cattle would prove to be a dead‐end for the infection has been discredited. The chance of a large number of people succumbing from a BSE‐like illness next century is about 70 per cent. The salmonella in eggs problem is not solved because contaminated infected laying flocks have been replaced by further infected flocks. Intensive farming is beset by problems additional to that of microbial safety. These include evidence of reduced nutritional quality of the food, particularly of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Moist food processing and retailing still provide major risks to consumers because new legislation is too lax. Thus most cooked food can be kept indefinitely at temperatures of 50°C or 8°C. One bacterium which can grow at low temperatures is E. coli 0157, the incidence of which has increased during the last few years. This is transferred through food from cattle and causes acute gastro‐enteritis, followed by kidney failure, particularly in children.

Three new microwave ovens that had been “approved” by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) were each used to heat ten convenience meals. These meals were designed for microwave reheating and packet instructions were followed exactly. The foods were inoculated with 10⊃5−10⊃6/g of both S. typhimurium and L. monocytogenes, and core temperatures and bacterial numbers were measured before and after heating. Some viable listeria were still present in 97 per cent of the meals and viable salmonella in 80 per cent after heating. End core temperatures were much lower than expected with one food only reaching 43°C. The three types of microwave gave similar results. The reasons for these findings and their implications are discussed.

WE have to announce with deep regret the death of Mr. I. Chalkley Gould, founder and director of the Library World since its establishment in 1898. Mr. Gould was a member of an old Essex family associated with Loughton and its neighbourhood, and was born in 1844, his father being the late George Gould, of Traps Hill House, Loughton. His connection with the firm of Marlborough, Gould & Co. and other stationery and printing concerns led him many years ago to give some attention to library and museum work, towards which he had always been attracted because of his personal interest in archaeology and literature. In this way he became associated with many museums, libraries and antiquarian societies, and identified himself more particularly with the movement for the preservation of ancient British earthworks. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, vice‐president of the Essex Archaeological Society, the Essex Field Club, and the British Archaeological Association. Within recent years he acted as hon. secretary of the Committee for Recording Ancient Earthworks and Fortified Enclosures—a committee for the formation of which he was largely responsible and in the work of which he took a very deep interest. He was chairman of the Committee for the Exploration of the Red Hills of Essex—an important undertaking which is not yet completed. He also contributed several valuable papers to the Victoria History of Essex, and assisted the editor of that publication in revising the earthworks sections of other counties.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.