Risk-based approaches to food safety regulation: what role for co-regulation?

Abstract

Food safety regulation is a key policy area that has witnessed an increasing alignment of risk and regulation. This paper examines the emergence and operation of co-regulation - a hybrid form of regulation in which public and private actors coordinate their respective regulatory activities - within the increasingly risk-based approaches to food safety management. On the basis of an analysis of emerging co-regulatory arrangements to food safety in the European Union, the paper contends that there are considerable difficulties in implementing such hybrid arrangements and deepens the basic preconditions under which they can attain the social goal of safe food supply. Specifically, it is argued that a regulatory framework that fosters public oversight and warrants data sharing and information exchange between the public and private actors involved is needed for the attainment of that goal. This framework has to be responsive to changing risk profiles and industry environments to ensure that food safety controls are risk-based, transparent and not captured by industry interests. This is particularly crucial for encouraging voluntary compliance as well as efficient allocation of limited regulatory resources

Public Private Partnerships in food industries: A road to success?

“…There is a consensus that the collaboration between public and private agents is located somewhere in-between command and control intervention, and self-regulation (Garcia-Martinez et al, 2007;Ogus, 2000;Rouvière and Caswell, 2012). Moreover, Garcia-Martinez et al (2013) underline that collaborative arrangements can be established at different phases of the regulatory process. They therefore differentiate models among four stages: (i) regulatory standard-setting process, (ii) process implementation, (iii) enforcement and (iv) monitoring.…”

“…From this perspective, Garcia-Martinez et al (2013) identified two broad models of co-regulation: Top-Down models or ''enforced self-regulation" and Bottom-Up models or ''recognized industry-level regulation". They highlight that Top-Down and Bottom-Up models differ in the level of public mandate given to the private sector to implement public policies objectives.…”

“…Recent contributions consider these partnerships as public and private actors working side-by-side to deliver (co-) regulatory outputs. Garcia-Martinez et al (2013) provide a framework that distinguishes forms of collaborations according to the stages of the regulatory process from which they emerge (Garcia-Martinez et al, 2007, 2013. They distinguish two broad co-regulation models, in which either private agents (bottom-up models) or public agents (top-down models) control or monitor the other.…”

“…Garcia-Martinez et al (2013) have conceptualized collaborative system models in a dichotomic approach, considering the interaction between public and private agents to explain and differentiate among the variety of collaborative arrangements. They summarize the literature on self-regulation and its links to the wide definition of regulation in regard to government intervention in the market (Posner, 1973).…”

“…In parallel with this public response, we have seen the emergence of new management systems with increased collaboration between public and private agents. Garcia-Martinez et al (2013) reviewed collaborative programmes for food safety in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Garcia-Martinez et al (2007) provided examples of public-private coordination in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.…”