Regulating and Managing Food Safety in the EU: A Legal-Economic Perspective

Abstract

This book analyses EU food law from a regulatory, economic and managerial perspective. It presents an economic assessment of strategies of food safety regulation, and discusses the different regulatory regimes in EU food law. It examines the challenges of food safety in the internal market as well as the regulatory tools that are available. The book's generic theorising and measurement of regulatory effects is supplemented by detailed analysis of key topics in food markets, such as health claims, enforcement strategies, and induced risk management at the level of the organizations producing food. The regulatory effects discussed in the book range from classical regulatory analysis covering e.g. effects of ex-ante versus ex-post regulation and content-related versus information-related regulation to new regulatory options such as behavioral regulation. The book takes as its premise the idea that economic considerations are basic to the design and functioning of the European food supply arena, and that economic effects consolidate or induce modification of the present legal structures and principles. The assessments, analyses and examination of the various issues presented in the book serve to answer the question of how economic theory and practice can explain and enhance the shaping and modification of the regulatory framework that fosters safe and sustainable food supply chains.-- Intro; Contents; Regulating and Managing Food Safety in the EU: A Legal-Economic Perspective; 1 Introduction; 2 Outline; 2.1 Public-Private; 2.2 Mandatory-Voluntary; 2.3 Prescription-Persuasion; 2.4 Rules-Principles; 2.5 Ex-Ante-Ex-Post; 2.6 Centralisation-Decentralisation; 3 Epilogue; References; Private Food Safety Standards in the EU; 1 Introduction; 1.1 Characteristics of Private Food Standards; Development of Private Standards; Characteristics of Private Food Standards; 1.2 Major Transnational Private Food Standards and Third Party Certification 2 Relations Between Public and Private Actors2.1 Rule-Making; 2.2 Adoption; 2.3 Monitoring and Enforcement; 2.4 Evaluation and Review; 3 Conclusion; References; Investigating the Regulatory Structure of Voluntary Sustainability Standards: Foundations for Intervention Strategies to Incre ... ; 1 Introduction; 2 Theoretical Framework; 3 Methodology; 4 Results; 4.1 Diversified Aim of VSSs; 4.2 High NGO Involvement in Standard-Setting; 4.3 Certification of Standards Often Through Private, Third-Party Certification; 5 General Discussion; References; Environmental Sustainability and the Food System 1 The Concept of Sustainability2 Issues of Environmental Sustainability of the Food System; 3 Public Intervention; 4 Regulatory Framework in the EU; 4.1 Common Agricultural Policy; 4.2 Common Fisheries Policy; 4.3 Food Waste; 4.4 Voluntary Measures; 4.5 Private Standards; 5 Consumer Perception of Environmental Sustainability and Food; 6 Environmental Sustainability and Health; 7 Conclusions; References; EU Health Claims: A Consumer Perspective; 1 Introduction; 2 A Framework for the Role of Claims and Symbols in Consumer Behaviour; 3 Health Goals 3.1 Fit Between the Salient Health Goal and Products (Believed to) Satisfy it3.2 Health Goals; 3.3 Selective Attention; 4 How Consumers Process Health Claims; 4.1 Health Claims and Symbols in the Packaging Context; 4.2 Inference Making; 4.3 (Correct) Understanding of Health Claims; 5 Discussion and Implications for EU Law; References; Regulatory Compliance and Company Strategies: The Case of the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (EC) No. 1924/2006; 1 Introduction; 2 A Brief Literature Review on Innovation, Regulation and the NHCR in the EU; 2.1 Innovation in the EU Food Industry 2.2 Impact of Regulation on Innovation in General and for the Food Industry in Particular2.3 The Current Status of the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (EC) No. 1924/2006 (NHCR); 3 Methods; 4 The NHCR: Potential Challenges and Criticalities; 5 Possible Compliance Strategies to Deal with the NHCR; 6 Discussion and Conclusions; References; Foods for Specific Consumer Groups; 1 Introduction; 2 Protecting the Consumer Under European Food Law; 2.1 Generic Safety Rules for Consumers; 2.2 Generic Commercial Protection Rules for Consumers; 2.3 Foods for Specific Consumer Groups in the EU