Economics of Food Safety

ISBN-13: 9789401170789 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 356 str.

Julie A. Caswell

Opis

Public concern about the safety and healthfulness of the food supply grew markedly during the 1980s. Numerous government, academic, interest group, and media reports questioning the adequacy of the food safety regulatory system formed the basis for this increase in concern. While public concern focused most directly on pesticide residues in food, scientists emphasized the risks of illness associated with microbiological contamination of food. Much additional attention was focused on the food supply as a result of the striking consensus on dietary recommendations that emerged in the late 1980s based on increased scientific knowledge of linkages between diet and health. Relatively little research on the economic aspects of food safety and nutrition issues had been conducted up to the mid-1980s. These aspects are complex. On the consumer demand side, they include consumers' perceptions of the risks associated with particular food products, how demographic characteristics influence consumers' processing of risk information and subsequent changes in food demand behavior, and the monetary value consumers might place on changes in the risk profiles of products. The economic benefits and costs associated with current food consumption patterns are a major determinant of demand for improved food safety and dietary change through government regulation. While a more complete picture of risks, benefits, and costs has been emerging recently, much is yet unknown.

Spis treści

I. Modeling Consumer Demand for Food Safety and Nutrition.- 1. Consumer Demand for Food and Food Safety: Models and Applications.- 2. Modeling the Effect of Risk on Food Demand and the Implications for Regulation.- 3. A Model of the Demand and Supply of the Health Effects of Food Substances.- II. Application of Risk Assessment Methodology to Food Safety.- 4. Modeling Chronic Versus Acute Human Health Risk from Contaminants in Food.- 5. Conservatism in Risk Assessment and Food Safety Policy.- 6. Risk Assessment for Estimating the Economic Costs of Foodborne Disease Caused by Microorganisms.- 7. An Economic Framework for Assessing Foodbome Disease Control Strategies with an Application to Salmonella Control in Poultry.- III. Measurement of Consumer Response to Safety and Health Information.- 8. The Impact of Health Risk Information on Food Demand: A Case Study of Alar and Apples.- 9. Consumers’ Perceptions of Risks from Pesticide Residues and Demand for Certification of Residue-Free Produce.- 10. Consumer Reaction to the Introduction of Bovine Somatotropin.- 11. Information, Advertising, and Health Choices: A Study of the Cereal Market.- 12. Assessing the Effects of Diet/Health Awareness on the Consumption and Composition of Fat Intake.- IV. Analysis of the Supply of Food Safety.- 13. Firm Strategic Response to Food Safety and Nutrition Regulation.- 14. A Model of Firm Costs of Compliance with Food Labeling Regulations.- 15. An Economic Model of FDA’s Imported Foods Enforcement Program.