Food safety and international food trade regulatory perspectives with reference to India and the U S A

Abstract

Today, information asymmetry, between the consumers and the food they consume, permeates the global food supply chains, making them more susceptible to foodborne morbidity and mortality. In light of the same, every actor in the food supply chain has both legal as well as ethical responsibility to assure safety, wholesomeness and authentic labelling of articles of food to the consumers. Interestingly, due to several food scandals arising from the internationally traded articles of food, a discursive conjunction of food safety risks and food trade has emerged. As a result, articles of food, channelised through the cross-border movements, are considered more dangerous, requiring a more prudent regulation, than the domestically produced articles of food. As an assurance that food is acceptable for human and animal consumption, food safety averts any exposure to food frauds and foodborne illness outbreaks therefrom. For this reason, the law endows the food regulators and the food business operators (FBOs) with the trace, alert and recall tools at all levels of a food supply chain to regulate the safety of both the domestic as well as the imported articles of food. As a risk assessment and management tool, traceability furthers the mandate of law enforcement in facilitating and targeting the recall or removal/ withdrawal of the articles of foods. In this milieu, this research is galvanised around an appraisal of the food safety, traceability, and recall regulation in India and the United States of America (U.S.A), along with an identification of the gaps, and recommendations for the way forward.