Changes in aflatoxin standards: Implications for EU border controls of nut imports

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy following peer review. The version of record Garcia-Alvarez-Coque, J.-M., Taghouti, I. and Martinez-Gomez, V. (2020), Changes in Aflatoxin Standards: Implications for EU Border Controls of Nut Imports. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 42: 524-541. doi:10.1093/aepp/ppy036 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/aepp/ppy036.[EN] Food safety concerns about the risk of aflatoxin (AF) contamination have been growing in many regions, particularly in the European Union (EU). To protect consumers from health risks, the EU has established strict standards for maximum acceptable AF levels in food products; these standards have changed several times. This article examines the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) database, which contains notifications on border controls on AF levels in tree nuts and peanuts. A count data model was used to analyze the impact of political economy considerations, past alerts, and path-dependence effects on RASFF border controls. Policy changes, including the harmonization and relaxing of the EU¿s AF standards, significantly affected the frequency of border controls, with diverse effects among exporting countries. It is believed that the present study provides some insights to the modeling of food standards for explanation or forecasting purposes.García Alvarez-Coque, JM.; Taghouti, I.; Martinez Gomez, VD. (2020). Changes in aflatoxin standards: Implications for EU border controls of nut imports. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 42(3):524-541. https://doi.org/10.1093/aepp/ppy036S52454142