Prescriptive Approach to Food Safety in Meat Products

Abstract

This paper explores recent trends in the surveillance of quality standards in the food production chain. These trends are prescriptive because they lay down rules or standards for food quality. This prescriptive process is led by food-safety standards in the USA where systems such as hazard analysis at critical control points (HACCP) were originally developed in response to the high preservation requirements of space exploration. They are now being adopted in more and more countries. Exporters of meat products will have to devote increasingly more resources to quality control. The adoption of these standards will be uneven across countries, and will effectively restrict trade in agricultural products rather than encourage it.