Vos, Ellen --- "Promoting food safety through legal measures in developing countries: experiences from EU food safety regulation" [2013] ELECD 971; in Faure, Michael; Wibisana, Andri (eds), "Regulating Disasters, Climate Change and Environmental Harm" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 38

Book Title: Regulating Disasters, Climate Change and Environmental Harm

Editor(s): Faure, Michael; Wibisana, Andri

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781002483

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Promoting food safety through legal measures in developing countries: experiences from EU food safety regulation

Author(s): Vos, Ellen

Number of pages: 18

Abstract/Description:

Promoting food safety is a vital, but not easy, task for regulatory authorities. For, food is a means of survival for human beings and vital to good health and well-being as it supplies essential nutrients which ‘feed’ the individual’s needs, whilst it contributes to social relationships and is an expression of cultural habits and traditions. This means that national, European and international regulatory authorities and organizations in regulating food safety need to deal with issues of human health and safety protection, markets, trade as well as industrial and agricultural policy. Food safety regulation must thus accommodate both economic interests and health and consumer protection, whilst also taking account of cultural differences and ethical concerns. Importantly, food is also an important economic good with processed food sales worldwide amounting to approximately €2.2 trillion. Food safety is moreover a global problem threatening the food security of millions of people. Today food safety is a problem that is more prevalent in the least industrialized world than in the industrialized world.