3. Public and private regulation of food safety in the UK
The control and management of food safety in the UK has been realised through partnerships of both the public and private sector.
Drivers for, benefits of and challenges to compliance with food safety regulations
Compliance with food safety regulation has become a ticket for accessing the global food value chain. In response, the interest of most researchers in this research community has shifted to understanding the evolving competitive landscape as a result of these new developments, and examining the response of enterprises to food safety regulation from different geographical positions, to improve policy decisions that will benefit both small and medium enterprises (SMES) and larger enterprises. Whether enterprises respond in a positive or negative manner depends on a variety of factors e.g. sector, enterprise size, financial situation and level of risk adversity. Further, the impact of these incentives on the enterprise is dependent on their perception of costs and benefits of compliance or non-compliance.
Successful implementation factors
Management support is also essential for successful implementation. A myriad of papers have focused particularly on how to implement the HACCP component of international standards without considering relevant factors to the whole system implementation.