The Benefits and Costs of Food Safety Policies: Discussion

Abstract

This session takes place at a historic moment. After more than a decade of scientific and political debate about how to reduce risks from food-borne microbial pathogens, the USDA published the final rule for pathogen reduction in meat and poultry in July 1996. This new regulation represents a major policy shift from the past ninety years of meat industry regulation. Furthermore, it sets the stage for the evolution of a more comprehensive approach to pathogen reduction. It is less widely appreciated that the development of new food safety regulation coincides with a growing demand for cost/benefit analysis of government intervention in markets (Collins). This trend will create new demands for research and analysis in the agricultural economics profession. Thus, it is timely to consider the theoretical foundations for analyzing food safety policies. The authors in this session explore the economic framework for evaluating food safety policies, particularly the recent mandated use of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, to prevent microbial foodborne pathogens in meat, poultry, and seafood. Van Ravenswaay and Hoehn (VRH) lay out a comprehensive model of consumer behavior that provides a framework for benefits analysis of any food safety hazard or policy. The contribution of the model is its focus on consumer behavior and the different ways that consumers may respond to hazards. It would allow us to estimate, for example, how the costs of averting or avoidance activities influence consumer behavior. The VRH model also allows explicit consideration of how private actions can substitute for public interventions. This is important because a failure to consider this interdependence can lead to incorrect valuation of reduced risk and misidentification of those who value it