Shifting responsibilities for food safety in Europe: an introduction

Following the BSE crisis in 1996, the European food sector underwent profound regulatory and institutional change. The present introductory article introduces, and sketches the background to, seven studies of the institutional reactions and initiatives that were part of, or prompted by, this reorganisation. The studies analyse the way in which the division of responsibilities for food safety has changed both across the EU as a whole and, more specifically, in six European countries. Prepared as part of the comparative research project, Trust in Food, the studies attempt to go beyond traditional policy network analysis and work on regulation. They ask which constellations of societal actors and logics are important in the shifting responsibilities of public and private actors; and they treat this as an empirical question. It emerges that, at EU level, the main strategy for restoring consumer confidence in food was to enhance the institutional independence, transparency and consumer agency. In the countries covered by the remaining six studies, by contrast, institutional reactions in the food sector varied depending on the particular configurations of state, market and civil society.