Project

Economics of food safety

Food borne diseases are caused by pathogens that enter the food supply chain anywhere from farm to kitchen. To reduce food safety problems governments, sectors, businesses, firms and farms are implementing strategies. Within the area of Food Safety Economics we aim to analyze the costs and benefits of alternative strategies, and to estimate the risks of a food safety problem before and after an implemented strategy. This information will improve the decision making process at different levels, i.e. individual farmers or businesses, sector authorities, national government and the European Union. Our approach is mainly based on building computer models that calculate or estimate the costs, benefits and risks of different strategies (e.g. mathematical modelling and Monte Carlo simulation). And to perform decision analyses that aim to rank different strategies (e.g. cost-effectiveness, costutility, cost-benefit analyses, decision trees, linear programming, and multiple criteria analyses). Food safety economics includes various research projects.

The researcher has been or is involved in the following projects:− Studying the relation between the direct recall costs of consumption milk and the recall moment;

− Integrating economics, epidemiology and food safety risk assessment (MEDVETNET);
− Epidemiological and economic evaluation of intervention strategies within production chains to
reduce human risks and consequences of bacteriological infections in human food
− Quality assurance and food safety in pig production;
− Quality assurance programs for Para tuberculosis;
− Evaluating Dutch livestock movement regulations;

− Economics of electronic identification and recording systems for Dutch livestock;