Food safety

1
Food safety an introduction

• Lecture 35
• Economics of Food Markets
• Alan Matthews

2
Lecture objectives

• Why is food safety a growing issue?
• What is the contribution of economists to the
  debate on food safety policy?
• The notion of risk
• EU food safety institutions

3
Reading

• Kinsey overview

4
Dimensions of food safety

• Three dimensions of food safety (Kinsey)
• Safety from food poisoning
• Safety from poor diets
• Safety from bioterrorism

5
The scope of food safety regulation

• The wide range of food safety regulation
• Protection of the consumer against adulteration
  of food and drink one of the earliest examples of
  social legislation
• Sanitary conditions in food preparation,
  packaging and handling pesticide and hormone
  residues packaging materials, food additives
  labelling requirements weights and measures
  legislation

6
The growing demand for food safety

• Risks of food-borne diseases have increased
• Economic growth increases consumer demand for
  quality attributes generally and food safety in
  particular
• Because of changing consumption habits, the
  consumer now more dependent on public authorities
  for food safety
• Economic studies in US suggest high costs to
  food-borne illnesses

7
Key questions

• Do the benefits of growing food regulation
  outweigh their cost? Could we deliver a
  particular level of food safety more efficiently?
• Food safety regulations differ from country to
  country, making food law a non-tariff barrier to
  trade. When is this legitimate consumer
  protection, and when industry protectionism?

8
Risk analysis

• The three legs of risk analysis
• Risk assessment
• Risk management
• Risk communication
• To which we can also add
• Control and enforcement
• Now embodied in WTO rules. Implication is that
  regulatory decisions based on risk analysis
  should be consistent across different aspects of
  food safety

9
Issues arising from risk analysis

• Techniques of risk assessment
• Determination of the acceptable risk standard
• Consumer perceptions of risk often different to
  expert assessments
• Consumers may lack confidence in the public
  authorities conducting the risk management
• What to do when scientific understanding is
  incomplete the precautionary principle

10
The EU approach to food safety regulation

• Totally overhauled following the BSE debacle in
  1996, became the key priority for the Santer
  Commission
• Green Paper on Food Law published in 1997 as
  basis for discussion
• 2000 White Paper on Food Safety
• Implementation overseen by DG SANCO under
  Commissioner David Byrne

11
The EU approach to food safety regulation

• Risk assessment now undertaken by the European
  Food Safety Authority -gt scientific advice
• Risk management based on clear legislation
  proposed by Commission and implemented by
  Council. Massive overhaul of EU food law
• Risk control substantial strengthening of the
  EU framework for enforcement of food safety
  regulations overseen by the Food and Veterinary
  Office of the Commission
• Risk communication responsibility of the EFSA