Food Safety and Traceability

Foodborne illness cause significant costs to societies. This chapter ­discusses food safety and traceability policies and their impacts in food markets. Since 1906, the USA has been in the forefront of food safety policies. Food safety is broadly defined as the probability that a food causes no harm to consumers. One of the key factors in mitigating foodborne illness outbreaks is the ability to quickly detect the cause, origin, and spread of the incident. This is where traceability and food safety are linked, as the former is defined as the ability to follow a path of a food through a food chain, from farm gate to the consumer’s plate and in the reverse direction. In the United States, both the FDA and the USDA/FSIS have mandates to manage food safety policies. However, several other Federal and State agencies are commissioned to assure a safe food supply. Food safety policies are increasingly imposing science- and risk-based standards, some of which (such as GlobalGAP) have been led by the private sector. Increasingly global and highly connected food chains present new food safety and traceability challenges. The recently enacted Food Safety Modernization Act mandates the FDA to issue science-based food safety standards and introduces a requirement for mandatory traceability. Food safety and traceability policies are costly and choices over alternative options need to take into account their impact on a food market’s technical, allocative and dynamic efficiencies, as well as nonmarket impacts.