Public faith in the food industry is at an all-time low as a result of the BSE crisis, according to the government.

Ministers have admitted that more needs to be done to restore public confidence and the systems used to determine the safety of food must be made more open and publicly accountable.

Agriculture minister Nick Brown makes the conclusion in the government's long-awaited response to the Phillips inquiry which was published on Friday.

Brown said: "The government recognises that there has been a significant loss of public confidence in the arrangements for handling food safety and standards in large part due to events surrounding BSE. It is committed to a policy of open and transparent working.

"The aim is to provide consumers and others with timely, accurate and scientifically based information and advice, enabling people to make informed decisions. The government recognises that its efforts to build and sustain trust through openness cannot succeed unless it is fully prepared to acknowledge uncertainty in its assessments of risk."

The 100-page document calls for "the whole approach and behaviour of departments and individuals" to change.

Government departments are also learning public relations skills in how to handle scare issues. The report says: "Departments are taking steps to improve skill levels in relation to managing communicating risk. Research is being commissioned to improve the government's understanding of public perceptions and reactions to risk issues, and findings will be used to update guidance and training programmes and also in the development of policies."

Labour is stressing that lessons have been learned from the crisis and say their response will not be the final word on the affair.

The report says: "The government does not believe there are any serious gaps in its powers to take proportionate emergency action against hazards to human or animal health in relation to animals and animal products and food. It others are concerned about the scope of powers available to the government in these circumstances, their views would be welcome."

The response followed the 17-volume Phillips report, published last October, which detailed over 150 recommendations following an inquiry into the BSE affair. The government last year responded with the announcement of a compensation package for victims of BSE, which will cost millions of pounds.

Some 87 people have already died from new-variant CJD, the human form of mad cow disease, in the UK and the government is still not certain what the scale of the problem will be in future years.

The UK was the country worst affected by the BSE scare, with some 170,000 cattle found to be carrying the deadly disease. Europe is now, however, bracing itself for fresh revelations about the extent of the BSE problem in Germany.