The Policy Environment for Food Safety and Nutrition: Regulating Quality and Quality Signaling

The policy environment surrounding issues of the safety and nutritional quality of the U.S. food supply is in considerable,although not unusual,turmoil. Calls for reform touch on every aspect of the regulatory effort,including standards,methods of achieving standards,and the choice of agencies for regulatory responsibility. The most recent large scale incident was in Washington,Idaho,California,and Nevada in early 1993 where approximately 500 people suffered cases of hemorrhagic colitis associated with E. coli 0157:H7 and three children died from eating contaminated hamburgers served at a fast food restaurant chain (U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 1993,Schneider 1993). Another significant incident was the 1985 Chicago outbreak of salmonellosis associated with tainted pasteurized milk (Ryan et al. 1987),while concerns mount about salmonella in chicken,Alar on apples