Seminar on Food Safety: European Policy, International Perspectives and Future Challenges
November 19, 2007, Vienna, Austria; 09:30 - 13:00

The European food policy regime has developed extensively over the last ten years. The last years have witnessed the passing of a number of regulations on chemical hazards, biological hazards, GMO, animal feed, nutrition and labelling. Unlike during the 1990s, current European policy on food safety is harmonized and coordinated at European level with respect to both legislation and risk assessment. Implementation at national level continues to lag behind, especially with regard to the diffusion of the HACCP codex among food operators. However, the monitoring systems put in place – notably traceability rules as well as the rapid alert system for food and feed (RASFF) – are expected to contribute to the overcoming of this implementation deficit in the medium-term.

Today, the food policy sector is one where the setting of standards (positive integration) is as important, if not more, than the removal of barriers to competition (negative integration). Moreover, the dispute settlement procedures set up within the WTO are contributing to this process of standard setting at the global level, even if not always in a linear manner and in the short-term.

In parallel to this shift from negative to positive integration, and perhaps directly as a result thereof, the demand for a comprehensive and integrated regulatory impact assessment that adequately considers the costs and benefits of regulation from a multi-stakeholder perspective are growing – both at European and global level. How should the need of (minimum) standards be balanced with the need to facilitate trade as a means of growth? Who are the winners and losers of stricter food safety regulation? What are the impacts on (sustainable) agriculture against the growing competition about land use given the energy crisis?

Speakers

Liana Giorgi, ICCR
The European Food Safety Regime: Achievements and Prospects

Peter Holmes, University of Sussex
Food Safety Standards as Facilitators or as Non-Tariff Barriers? Dilemmas in the Interface between deeper Economic Integration and Consumer Protection

Olga Memedovic, UNIDO
The Agro-Food Value Chain and Developing Countries’ Challenges to Fight Poverty

Roland Poms, International Association for Cereal Science & Technology
The MONIQA Network of Excellence for Harmonizing Analytical Methods for Monitoring and Controlling Quality and Safety in the Food Supply Chain

Venue

ICCR
Schottenfeldgasse 69/1
1070 Vienna, Austria
Klick here for directions

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