HJ van der Fels-Klerx (WUR-BEC & WFSR) Bridging economics and food safety

Food safety is defined as the situation in which food is produced, handled, prepared and stored in such a way that consumer health upon consumption of the food is not affected, neither in the short nor in the long run. A food safety hazard is an agent in, or on the food, or a condition of the food that potentially could cause adverse human health effects upon food consumption. Such agents can be microbiological, chemical or physical. The presence of food safety hazards in feed/food products above predefined threshold (e.g., legally allowed) limits can result into economic losses related to production and trade, and affect animal and human health. Economic losses might be extremely high when a food safety crisis occurs, both for actors in the food supply chain and/or the society.

Ensuring the safety of food products is thus of utmost importance, and is part of food quality management, since food safety can be considered as a specific aspect of food quality. Food safety management require resources, e.g., labour and costs for analytical tests, from the food business operator (FBO) and (intern)national governmental organisations. Supporting private and public risk managers in most cost-effective use of resources for food safety management will improve food safety, reduce economic losses from food safety crises, and ultimately increase animal and human health. This lecture will focus on the potentials of using economic theories and methods in the food safety management domain.