ABSTRACT
This chapter presents economic principles for food safety; introduces risk assessment methods for food safety; summarizes policy issues related to foodborne illness; and describes the regulation of foods that are Generally Recognized as Safe. It also summarizes policy issues related to pesticides and GMOs; and explains the jurisdiction of federal agencies that oversee food safety in the United States. Food safety oversight in the United States is distributed across a large number of federal agencies and departments. The two most important food safety agencies are United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which oversees most meat, poultry and processed eggs, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which oversees most other food products. In late 2010, Congress passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, making some of the biggest changes to FDA's food safety authority. Food safety problems stem from information failures that prey on the weaknesses of both markets and government actors.
