ABSTRACT
For the past 20 to 30 years the central theme in federal food safety policy has been a call for modernization. This call comes despite an impressive record of achievement. It reflects the fact that changes in food production, processing, and distribution, as well as in consumption patterns, have raised new challenges that existing policy appears ill equipped to meet. Coupled with this is the recognition that new technological developments, particularly in information technology and microbiology, provide new policy opportunities that have yet to be fully exploited.
