Balancing dioxin monitoring and the economic impact of food dioxin contamination

Brief project description

Dioxins are environmental pollutants produced by natural and industrial processes and are important causes of food contamination. Higher levels of dioxins have been found in mainly food of animal origin. This is particularly important due to the accumulation of dioxin in fat. The primary source of food contamination is the use of contaminated feed. Previous dioxin incidents have proved that they are not only a threat to human health, but also to the economy of a country, and more specifically, the agri-food chains involved. The examination of food and feed within a monitoring program is an important tool to prevent and diminish the health and economic impact of contaminations. However, the effectiveness of these programs depends on their on time application which is constrained by financial circumstances. Consequently, an in depth analysis pursuing to optimize the monitoring programs taken into account these circumstances and the benefits regarding the reduction of possible impacts is required. In this context, the aim of this project is to get recommendations about the economic optimization of dioxin monitoring to two agrifood chains considering the possible economic impact of contamination in each chain.Additionally, this research pursues to give a set of incentive mechanisms in order to guarantee food safety requirements considering the cost effectiveness of the overall monitoring system.