The European Food Safety Authority in Global Food Safety Governance: A Participant, a Benchmark, and a Model
Chapter in Foundations of EU Food Law and Policy - Ten Years of European Food Safety Authority, A. Alemanno & S. Gabbi eds. (London: Ashgate, 2013, Forthcoming)
21 Pages Posted: 4 Nov 2012 Last revised: 11 Apr 2013
Date Written: 2012
Abstract
The past decades have witnessed an exponential increase in food scares of various sources. All these food-safety incidents have driven equally mushrooming regulatory responses by different actors at different levels with different experimental approaches. Such diverse norm-making activities constitute an evolving governance complex being formed and transformed, configured and reconfigured in various active regulatory spheres. However, there is arguably no meta-framework existing that dictates or coordinates the making of such diverse norms. Where multiple spheres overlap, many stimulating issues emerge, such as those legitimacy, accountability, and transparency.
As the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) stands at the center of global food-safety lawmaking, its faces similar problems involving the soundness of science, legitimacy of standards and rules, as well as accountability and transparency of decision-making processes. This paper brings in the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to reassess the Codex lawmaking activities, identify key areas where the EFSA is highly enlightening, and concludes that the governance complex of global food safety should evolve to facilitate mutually reinforcing spheres.
Keywords: food safety, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), global governance
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