Overview

Food safety is receiving heightened attention worldwide as the important links between food and health are increasingly recognized. Improving food safety is an essential element of improving food security, which exists when populations have access to sufficient and healthy food. At the same time, as food trade expands throughout the world, food safety has become a shared concern among both developed and developing countries. Governments in many countries have established new institutions, standards, and methods for regulating food safety and have increased investments in hazard control. This set of policy briefs describes how developing countries are addressing food safety issues in order to improve both food security and food trade, and discusses the risks, benefits, and costs when such policies are implemented. "from TextFood safety ,food security ,trade ,health ,Export marketing ,

Food Safety as a Global Public Good: Is There Underinvestment?

Globalization of the food system is shaped by demand trends that bring about deep integration of agricultural production and marketing. As diets and food quality become more similar around the world, risks are shared across borders, creating global public "goods" and "bads." Examples of globally shared food safety risks include acute risks such as microbial pathogens, as well as chronic risks, such as those arising from pesticide residues or mycotoxins. Food safety is addressed as a global public good through private sector efforts, institutional innovations such as the SPS agreement under the WTO, and trade capacity building efforts to improve food safety management for developing country exports. Data on food safety import violations from the U.S. and the EU show where the global food system is experiencing failures in delivering safe food. Microbial pathogens in seafood are an area of common concern; other problems reflect differences in standards between these two major high income markets. WTO's database on trade facilitation shows that most efforts focus on general capacity building and only a few address specific risks or commodities. Although meeting standards for high income consumers motivates trade facilitation, the spillovers for developing country consumers from such investments could be large.food safety, global public good, trade facilitation, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Q13, Q17, Q18, O19,

Food safety in food security and food trade:

CONTENTS: Overview / Laurian J. Unnevehr; Food Safety as a Public Health Issue for Developing Countries / Fritz K. K�ferstein; Mycotoxin Food Safety Risk in Developing Countries / Ramesh V. Bhat and Siruguri Vasanthi; Trends in Food Safety Standards and Regulation: Implications for Developing Countries / Julie A. Caswell; Food Safety Issues in International Trade / Spencer Henson; Balancing Risk Reduction and Benefits from Trade in Setting Standards / John Wilson and Tsunehiro Otsuki; Case Study: Guatemalan Raspberries and Cyclospora / Linda Calvin, Luis Flores, and William Foster; Case Study: Kenyan Fish Exports / Richard O. Abila; Case Study:The Shrimp Export Industry in Bangladesh / James C. Cato and S. Subasinge; Case Study: Reducing Pesticide Residues on Horticultural Crops / George W. Norton, Guillermo E. Sanchez, Dionne Clarke-Harris, and Halimatou Koné Traoré; Case Study: India Responds to International Food Safety Requirements / Shashi Sareen; Case Study: Supermarkets and Quality and Safety Standards for Produce in Latin America / Julio A. Berdegué, Fernando Balsevich, Luis Flores, Denise Mainville, and Thomas Reardon; Case Study: Beef industry in China / Colin G. Brown and Scott A.Waldron; Case Study:The Poultry Industry in Colombia / Miguel I. Gómez, Diego M. Sierra, and Daisy Rodriguez; Case Study: Reducing Mycotoxins in Brazilian Crops / Elisabete Salay; Food Safety and GM Crops: Implications for Developing-Country Research / Joel I. Cohen, Hector Quemada, and Robert Frederick; Food Safety Policy Issues for Developing Countries / Laurian J. Unnevehr, Lawrence Haddad, and Christopher Delgado.food security, Food safety, trade, health,

IMPROVING COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS FOR HACCP AND MICROBIAL FOOD SAFETY: AN ECONOMIST'S OVERVIEW

HACCP, cost/benefit analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

FOOD SAFETY: TRADE BARRIER OR TRADE ENHANCER?

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

BEEF QUALITY: WILL CONSUMERS PAY FOR LESS FAT?

A nationwide retail survey is used to estimate hedonic prices of fat characteristics in beef table cuts. Results show that consumers consistently place a negative value on external fat for all table cuts and on seam fat in chuck and round cuts, but do not consistently value intramuscular fat. These consumer preferences are not transmitted to cattle feeders through price signals, even though the current beef grading system can distinguish carcasses with undesirable fat characteristics.Consumer/Household Economics,

Tracking Foodborne Pathogens from Farm to Table: Data Needs to Evaluate Control Options

Food safety policymakers and scientists came together at a conference in January 1995 to evaluate data available for analyzing control of foodborne microbial pathogens. This proceedings starts with data regarding human illnesses associated with foodborne pathogens and moves backwards in the food chain to examine pathogen data in the processing sector and at the farm level. Of special concern is the inability to link pathogen data throughout the food chain. Analytical tools to evaluate the impact of changing production and consumption practices on foodborne disease risks and their economic consequences are presented. The available data are examined to see how well they meet current analytical needs to support policy analysis. The policymaker roundtable highlights the tradeoffs involved in funding databases, the economic evaluation of USDA's Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) proposal and other food safety policy issues, and the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach toward improving food safety databases.food safety, cost benefit analysis, foodborne disease risk, foodborne pathogens, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), probabilistic scenario analysis, fault-tree analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Convergence in Food Demand and Delivery: Do Middle-Income Countries Follow High-Income Trends?

This study uses food expenditures and food-sales data from 1990 to 2004 to examine whether food-consumption patterns and food-delivery-mechanism trends are converging across 47 high- and middle-income countries. Results point to a high degree of convergence in global food systems. Middle-income countries appear to be following trends in high-income countries. Convergence is apparent in most important food-expenditure categories and in indicators of food-system modernization such as supermarket and fast food sales.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

NONCOMPETITIVE PRICING AND EXCHANGE RATE PASS-THROUGH IN SELECTED U.S. AND THAI RICE MARKETS

A "pricing to market" international trade model is applied to U.S. and Thai rice exports to high and middle income countries that are continuous rice importers. These markets are characterized by strong quality preferences and highly inelastic demand, and thus exporters may exercise market power. Evidence of noncompetitive pricing either through price discrimination across destinations or through imperfect exchange rate pass-through is found in this small but growing segment of the international rice trade.Exchange rates, Imperfect competition, International trade, Rice, International Relations/Trade,

IDENTIFYING PRIORITIES FOR PESTICIDE RESIDUE REDUCTION

Pesticide residues, dietary intakes, dietary risks, fruits and vegetables, Crop Production/Industries,