ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on food safety, i.e. the quality standards to be met by fish and fishery products intended for human consumption. The environmental status of the sea basins that rim the coasts of the European Union (EU) Member States and its potential impact on the food health of European consumers are key concerns for various EU policies, including, quite especially, the Common Fisheries Policy. Improving food quality and safety is one of the core goals of Food and Agriculture Organization's activities, and the organization plays an important role in the development, adoption and implementation of international food safety standards. Marine areas are a very valuable source of dietary protein for a large part of the global population. The need to protect the marine environment was scarcely mentioned in the working sessions for the first United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea.
