ABSTRACT
Despite the emergent power of corporate retailers in fuelling authoritative hierarchical and individualised notions of consumption culture, food policy and regulation, the 1980s and 1990s have been dogged by a series of controversies. For the most part these have concerned issues of safety (e.g. salmonella, Escherichia coli, BSE) and have raised searching questions about the way in which food is regulated and who undertakes that regulation. One of the many high points of political and public concern occurred in the late 1990s, when within the same month (April 1997) eminent commentators were reporting for the government on E. coli (The Pennington Group 1997) and for the then Labour opposition on a Food Standards Agency (James 1997). Both reports exposed the changing nature of food regulation processes, highlighted weaknesses in current implementation practices and pointed to the confusing range of responsibilities and professionals involved in food regulation. Whereas both reports concerned themselves with a range of food regulators and regulatory activities, both pinpointed the key role of environmental health and trading standards departments in ensuring food standards and safety (James 1997: 11).
