Regulating food safety: the power of alignment and drive towards convergence

Food safety is a complex policy domain: it involves a variety of stakeholders, touches upon a variety of issues and disciplines, and has an important international dimension. While countries are free to set their own standards, their policy autonomy in the process of regulating food safety is restricted by a number of factors. The EU and each member state are confronted with two aspects of compliance: the power of alignment with Codex standards, and the drive towards convergence with standards developed by trading partners. The importance attributed to the WTO and its reference organization, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, sheds light on the institutional constraints inherent in the international framework governing food safety while revealing the indirect power of alignment with international standards. Equally important, on the other hand, are the standards adhered to or required by key trade partners. This is often a stronger factor pointing towards convergence in the mid to long term. These constraints are inherent components of the present-day European regulatory framework governing food safety.