In the aftermath of the recent food scares, Europe and the United States face majorchallenges to maintain a safe food system. Foot and Mouth disease (FMD) and MadCow disease (BSE) outbreaks in Europe and the highly publicized product recalls inthe United States illustrate the severity of the food safety problems thatgovernments are dealing with. The global meat industry has been exposed tosignificant food safety and food quality events that in turn have triggered verydifferent responses in the United States and Europe (Goldsmith et al., 2002a).By the fact that the responses to ensuring safety differ between the US and Europe,are there multiple means to the end objective of a safe food system? This paper,using the US meat industry as an empirical example, develops an institutionalmodel demonstrating alternative mechanisms for achieving safety in the foodsystem. While the traditional response in a time of food safety breech is to intensifyregulation, the model developed herein offers complementary and substituteapproaches.
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