Journal of Food Law & Policy

Vol. 14, No. 2

Article

A Meticulous Food Safety Plan Today Avoids Handcuffs Tomorrow

Kim Bousquet

In August 2010, thousands of people across the United States were poisoned by eating eggs unknowingly tainted with Salmonella enteritidis bacteria. Following a lengthy investigation, the owners of the facility where the outbreak began were sentenced to three months in prison. This is not a one-off case; poor food safety practices are responsible for several outbreaks and often end in incarceration. Filthy hen houses, diseased fruit storage, and negligent food processing may be the last thing we want to imagine, but these practices have much to teach today's food producers. This article first examines how poor food production practices can lead to an environment ripe for spread of disease and an unacceptable level of contamination. Then, it explores what companies can do to prevent such unacceptable conditions, decrease the likelihood and severity of an outbreak and, of course, avoid incarceration.

Article

Super Unleaded Malbec? A Case Study in Flawed International Standard Setting at the Codex Alimentarius

Justin Schwegel

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) provides rules on the adoption and enforcement of SPS measures. It also presumes that food safety regulations adopted by WTO Members that conform to relevant international standards are consistent with the SPS Agreement. The relevant international standard setting body for food safety is the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which conducts most of its food safety risk management work through subsidiary bodies such as the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Food (CCCF). CCCF establishes maximum limits for food contaminants and codes of practice for reducing food contamination. These subsidiary bodies in turn delegate risk management work to electronic working groups (EWG) that are comprised of relevant food safety authorities of Codex member states.

Article

Regulating China's Ecommerce: Harmonizations of Laws

Pinghui Xiao

Internet commercialization began in China in 1995. Since then, China has seen a digitalization movement, which has become a joint undertaking between industry and government in the age of ubiquitous Internet in China. China’s Premier Li Keqiang announced ‘Internet Plus’ as the national strategy in his Government Work Report presented during the Two Sessions of the year of 2015. Following Premier Li’s vision for the ‘Internet Plus’ Strategy, China is now determined “to integrate mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data, and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing, to encourage the healthy development of e-commerce, industrial networks, and Internet banking, and to help get Internet-based companies to increase their presence in the international market.” Under the auspices of “Internet Plus,” e-commerce became one of the most important priority areas to promote China’s continuing prosperity.

Comment

The Global Food Security Act: America's Strategic Approach to Combating World Hunger

Michael Adkins

The world’s farms currently produce enough calories to adequately feed everyone on the planet. From the 1960s through 2008, per capita food availability worldwide has risen from 2220 kilocalories per person per day to 2790. Specifically, developing countries have recorded a rise in kilocalories per person per day, from 1850 to 2640. Yet, despite overall availability, around 815 million people still suffer from hunger or some form of malnutrition. Approximately one in ten people are undernourished.