Cost implications of improving food safety in the Dutch dairy chain

This paper examines control measures for improving food safety in the dairy chain, using an integer linear programming model. The chain includes feed (compound feed production and delivery), farm (dairy farm) and dairy processing (transport and processing of raw milk, delivery of pasteurised milk) blocks. Results show that 65 per cent of the maximum possible food safety improvement can be achieved at rela-tively low extra cost per ton of milk (E4.27), fairly evenly distributed across the blocks. Higher safety levels can be attained by increasing the farm block’s contri-bution, but at much higher extra cost (E44.37 for the maximum attainable)