On recent news broadcasts, President of the United States, William Clinton, has issued warnings about new forms of terrorism and identified virus and chemical agents as "emergent threats".

Food and drink, as recent events have demostrated, can be the target of bacterilogical and chemical attacks.Only by adopting tamper-proof packaging can such attacks be countered.

Tins are the one and only drink container that guarantee absolute inviolability in packaging. Yet on consuption of their contents, they offer virtually no hygienic safety. Wether the beverage is drunk directly from the tin or poured into a glass, it comes into contact with the outher wall of the lid and its rim, carrying pollutants which may be present, either because they have been deliberately placed there (*) or because they have accidentally accumulated.

This requires either careful cleaning of the lid and its rim before opening or the adoption of a system that ensures that beverages do not come into contact with the areas of the tin lid which could carry pollutants because they have been left in uncontrolled hygienic conditions. Only in these ways can consumers be assurred of hygienic safety which acts of terrorism or accidental events could impair.

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The illnesses of two hundred fifty people, that Coca-Cola attributed to bad quality of a lot of carbon dioxide and to a fungicide come in contact with cans at Dunquerque, in France, stays a trace of mystery. A mystery emphasized by news – disclosed by Van den Bossche – that Coca-Cola had been blackmailed in Germany: a request of “million of marks” that may be paid within 18th May “to avoid a offence against the quality of products ”.

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