Food Safety and Food Quality

Food Safety and Food Quality
The costs and nature of food safety investment will be influenced by the growing recognition that a farm to table approach is necessary to address food safety.

Because many hazards can enter the food chain at different points and it is costly to test for their presence a preventative approach that controls processes is the preferred method for improving safety.

Sometimes characterized as a Hazard Analysis Critical Point (HACCP) system, thus approach is increasingly used as the basis for food safety regulation and for private certification of food safety.

Food quality issues are closely related to food safety in practice because both are managed throughout the production process.

Market failures can also occur for quality, and public intervention can sometimes address these failures through establishment of grades and standards.

Because product quality may differ among markets and quality differentiation can benefit industry, private actions can often substitute for public actions to address issues of product quality.

The public role in addressing food safety is much more clearly justified, because it protects consumers and promotes public health.
Food Safety and Food Quality