Prevention, Precaution, Consumer Involvement: Which Model for Food Safety in the Future?

Until recently, regulatory authorities in developed countries used a “standard” model for analyzing health risks from food, developed to investigate other technological risks. We will begin by reviewing the characteristics and principal options of that model. Since the early 1980’s, a number of reported dysfunctions in the food chain have caused public opinion in several countries to become increasingly skeptical about the model’s value. The precautionary principle was therefore suggested as a new guideline for reducing risk from food. We shall review the impact that this has had on risk management, based on the “appropriate” definition of the precautionary principle which is currently emerging in Europe. We shall then turn to the risk assessment process, in order to show how new demands by decision makers for a rigorous application of the precautionary principle have significantly affected the assessment process itself. In closing, we shall examine the “standard’ view of communication on risk, which is seen as the final stage in the analysis of risk. We shall demonstrate how active participation by representatives of the public at the evaluation and management stages can improve both the quality and the acceptability of the analysis of risk. The application of the precautionary principle thus affects not just one aspect of the analysis of risk, but all three. Considered together, the changes it brings make it possible to propose a so-called “constructivist” alternative model which, in the case of food safety, can contribute to a better acceptance by society of the rare but inevitable malfunctions in the production of foodstuffs.