EU Food Safety Policy: Localising contested governance

Abstract: Food safety is a vital concern and a salient regulatory arena, with important implications for consumers, producers and retailers of food. Following the BSE crisis in 1996, and with the alleged aim to restore consumer confidence in food, national and fragmented food safety regulations across Europe were transformed into a new European-wide food regulatory system. This included a new legal and regulatory framework, a new institutional set-up of public authorities, and new roles for public and private actors. The article analyses how the division of responsibilities for food safety has changed both across the EU as a whole and, more specifically, in six European countries. Based on seven case studies, which were prepared as part of a comparative research project, TRUSTINFOOD, the article analyses how core principles of the new EU food safety policy was put into practice in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Portugal and the UK. The article demonstrates how changes in regulatory practices in EU and the six countries converge with respect to formal regulatory framework and diverge with respect to practical implementation and institutional reform. It is a shared perspective to restore consumer confidence by enhancing institutional independence, transparency and consumer agency, but conditions for this differ between the countries. The structure of food markets and the political agendas around food issues continue to vary in different national contexts but the new food safety policy may further the development of the single European market and thus promote changes within the food production systems in Europe.