The Europeanization of food safety: a discourse-analytical approach

Abstract

This article explores the evolution of food safety policy at the level of the European Union (EU) from a discourse-analytical perspective. First, the article traces the political saliency of food safety since the food scares of the late 1990s, such as ‘mad cow disease’, and explores the consequent breakdown of the historically sedimented policy approach. Specifically, I highlight key moments of institutional transformation at the EU level by considering the role of scientific expertise and the meaning of national borders in the overall policy approach. Subsequently, the paper uses discourse analysis to address the mobilization of Europeanization in food safety policy since the 1990s, and identifies the ‘integrative nodal points’ that have helped sustain this policy discourse: notions of being a member of the food chain, of being a stakeholder, and of being a consumer.