"Food safety is affected by the decisions of producers, processors, distributors, food service operators, and consumers, as well as by government regulations. In developed countries, the demand for higher levels of food safety has led to the implementation of regulatory programs that address more types of safety-related attributes (such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), microbial pathogens, environmental contaminants, and animal drug and pesticide residues) and impose stricter standards for those attributes. They also further prescribe how safety is to be assured and communicated. Liability systems are another form of regulation that affect who bears responsibility when food safety breaks down. These regulatory programs are intended to improve public health by controlling the quality of the domestic food supply and the increasing flow of imported imported food products from countries around the world." from TextFood safety ,food security ,Public health ,

Caswell, Julie A.

English

Research Papers in Economics

FOR FOOD,AGRICULTURE,
AND THE ENVIRONMENT
FOCUS 10  •  BRIEF 4 OF 17  •  SEPTEMBER 2003
FOOD SAFETY IN FOOD SECURITY AND FOODTRADE
Trends in Food Safety Standards and Regulation:
Implications for Developing Countries
JULIE A. CASWELL
F
ood safety is affected by the decisions of producers,
processors, distributors, food service operators, and con-
sumers, as well as by government regulations. In developed
countries, the demand for higher levels of food safety has led
to the implementation of regulatory programs that address
more types of safety-related attributes (such as bovine spongi-
form encephalopathy (BSE), microbial pathogens, environmental
contaminants, and animal drug and pesticide residues) and
impose stricter standards for those attributes.They also fur-
ther prescribe how safety is to be assured and communicated.
Liability systems are another form of regulation that affect who
bears responsibility when food safety breaks down.These regu-
latory programs are intended to improve public health by con-
trolling the quality of the domestic food supply and the
increasing flow of imported food products from countries
around the world.
Common to the adoption of new regulations by devel-
oped countries is the application of risk analysis principles.
Under these principles, and in line with the World Trade
Organization’s (WTO’s) Agreement on the Application of
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), coun-
tries should base their regulatory actions on scientific risk
assessment. In addition, a country should be able to clearly link
its targeted level of protection, based on a scientifically
assessed risk level, to its regulatory goals and, in turn, to its
standards and inspection systems. Finally, the risk management
options chosen should restrict trade as little as possible.
Despite similarities in approach among developed coun-
tries, to date they have made only mixed progress toward
aligning their regulatory requirements. Countries are struggling
with the task of identifying key risk issues and choosing regula-
tory programs to control those risks.They emphasize different
risks, apply different levels of precaution, and choose different
regulatory approaches.The regulatory systems of countries are
a mix of old laws and newer regulations that frequently do not
apply consistent standards across products, risks, or countries
of origin. Finally, countries may be tempted to use food safety
regulations as a means of protecting domestic industries from
foreign competition.
These features of food safety regulation in developed
countries have several implications for developing countries.
First, they determine access to growing markets for food
exports, particularly high-value fresh commodities such as
those discussed in other briefs in this collection.When stan-
dards differ, this can create additional barriers for developing-
country exporters. Second, these features determine the issues
that will be addressed in international forums, such as the
Codex Alimentarius Commission (see Brief 5).Third, they cre-
ate expectations among developing-country consumers regard-
ing acceptable levels of safety and set examples for emerging
regulations in developing-country food systems (see Brief 13).
This brief reviews emerging regulatory approaches and the
implications for developing countries.
REGULATORY APPROACHES
Countries regulate food safety through the use of process,
product (performance), or information standards. Process stan-
dards specify how the product should be produced. For exam-
ple, Good Manufacturing Practices specify in-plant design, sani-
tation, and operation standards. Product (performance) stan-
dards require that final products have specific characteristics.
An example is the specification of a maximum microbial
pathogen load for fresh meats and poultry. Finally, information
standards specify the types of labeling or other communication
that must accompany products.
While these categories provide a neat breakdown,in prac-
tice most countries use a combination of approaches to regulate
any particular food safety risk.For example,specifications for
acceptable in-plant operations may be backed up with final prod-
uct testing to monitor and verify the success of safety assurance
programs.Labeling that instructs final consumers on proper
food handling techniques may further back up these systems.
MAJOR REGULATORY TRENDS IN DEVELOPED
COUNTRIES
• Stronger public health and consumer welfare emphasis in decisions
by regulatory agencies.The increasing use of the risk analysis
framework for regulatory decision-making focuses attention
on the effective control of public health risks as the ultimate
goal of regulations,rather than intermediate steps such as
assuring that accepted practices are used in production.This in
turn leads to a focus on the food supply chain,on identifying
where hazards are introduced into it,and on determining
where those hazards can be controlled most cost effectively in
the chain.This approach is referred to as “farm to table” or
“farm to fork” analysis.When the supply chain extends across
international borders,risk analysis may encompass farm or
processing practices in developing countries.
• Adoption of more stringent safety standards,with a broader scope
of standards. Food safety standards are becoming more strin-
gent in developed countries on two fronts.First,in many cases
food safety attributes that were previously regulated are being
held to more precise and stringent standards.For example,
rather than assuring meat product safety simply through
process standards,those products may be required to meet
specific pathogen load standards for E.coli or Salmonella.
Similarly,tolerances for aflatoxin may be lowered as more
information and better testing become readily available.Second,the scope of standards is broadening,as new risks
become known.For example,the European Union,the United
States,and other countries have instituted strict feeding
restrictions to avoid the spread of BSE in cattle.In addition,
the European Union has recently established a regulatory pro-
gram to control human exposure to dioxins through the food
supply.These evolving standards create continuing challenges
for producers and regulatory agencies in exporting countries.
• Adoption of the HACCP approach to assuring safety.During the
1990s,developed countries made a strong shift toward requir-
ing the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)
approach to assuring food safety.Under HACCP,companies
are responsible for analyzing how hazards such as food-borne
pathogens may enter the product,establishing effective control
points for those hazards,and monitoring and updating the sys-
tem to assure high levels of food safety.These HACCP sys-
tems are usually predicated on the processing plant having an
adequate system of sanitary operating procedures already in
place.HACCP does not prescribe specific actions to be taken
in a plant:the company chooses its methods for controlling
hazards.HACCP systems make clear that the central respon-
sibility for assuring safety belongs to a company;the regula-
tor’s job is often shifted from one of direct inspection to pro-
viding oversight for the company’s operation of its HACCP
plan.Since HACCP is primarily a process standard for compa-
ny-level activity,inspection to assure compliance is challenging
for imported products coming from plants in other countries.
Some countries,such as those in the European Union,have
mandated HACCP for all levels of the food supply chain,while
others such as the United States have mandated it for specific
sectors (meat slaughter and processing,for example).
• Adoption of hybrid regulatory systems.Mandatory HACCP may
be combined with performance standards for finished prod-
ucts.The performance standards (a minimum incidence of
Salmonella in finished products,for example) provide a check
on whether the HACCP plan is performing adequately.The
increased use of performance standards has been facilitated by
the development of more accurate and speedier testing pro-
cedures,particularly for pathogens.Eventually such tests may
make it easier for exporters to demonstrate and verify a par-
ticular level of safety.
• Increased reliance on certification,including traceability. In devel-
oped countries,regulatory systems increasingly require that
safety assurance actions be documented internally by the
company and externally to government agencies.The system
may require documentation tracing a food product back
through the supply chain to its source or forward through the
chain to the consumer.For example,the European Union is
moving forward with mandatory traceability for all food prod-
ucts.The quality control systems required by buyers (such as
supermarket chains) have frequently moved faster in the
direction of certification and traceability requirements than
have government programs,leading to a complex interaction
of public and private requirements for food producers and
suppliers.(How these developments have affected exporters is
discussed in Brief 8.)
• Greater transparency for national regulations.National-level regu-
lation has become more transparent in several respects largely
because of the requirements of the WTO.National govern-
ments must clearly state the reasoning and rationale behind
their regulations and notify WTO members about the require-
ments of a regulation and the timing of its enforcement.
Regulations may be challenged under the WTO dispute
process.As a result,national regulators can no longer ignore
the trade impacts of their regulatory choices.This may make it
easier to address food safety standards as barriers to trade.
• Export of some regulatory responsibility and burden.HACCP and
other certification approaches to food safety assurance are
process oriented.Assuring compliance for imported products
may require oversight and inspection of farms or plants in
other countries.One approach to accomplishing this is to
require that exporting countries have in place a regulatory
structure (a competent authority) deemed acceptable to the
importing country.This has resulted in some exporting of reg-
ulatory responsibility and burden to other countries as the
price of entry into developed-country markets (see Brief 9).
CONCLUSION
Developed countries have been building food safety regulatory
systems that are increasingly comprehensive (covering more
safety attributes) and more stringent (establishing stricter stan-
dards for those attributes).They are adopting a mix of regulato-
ry approaches depending on the problem addressed,including
process standards such as HACCP,performance standards for
testing final products,and even increased labeling to communi-
cate about food safety to consumers.These trends will continue
unabated in the future,with the result that over time food safety
standards will become increasingly demanding.How these trends
are influencing developing countries’ food exports and food
markets is discussed in other briefs in this collection. ■
For further reading see S.J.Henson and J.A.Caswell,“Food
Safety Regulation:An Overview of Contemporary Trends,”
Food Policy 24 (No.6,1999):589-603;T.Otsuki,J.S.Wilson,and
M.Sewadeh,“Saving Two in a Billion:Quantifying the Trade
Effect of European Food Safety Standards on African Exports,”
Food Policy 26 (No.5,2001):495-514;and J.A.Caswell,
“International Food Inspection,” in Encyclopedia of Life
Support Systems,Article 5.18.3.5 (Paris:United Nations
Educational,Scientific,and Cultural Organization,2003).
Julie A. Caswell (caswell@resecon.umass.edu) is a professor in the Department of Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts,Amherst, USA.
International Food Policy Research Institute
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www.ifpri.org 

Trends in food safety standards and regulation implications for developing countries

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