Managing the food supply chain quality and risk has received signi fi cant attention in recent years
especially in global emerging markets such as India and China. In this paper, we present a mutually
supporting analytical model and exploratory case to study the managerial and policy issues related to
quality control in food supply chain management with a focus on the Chinese dairy industry. Based on a
general supply-chain model with acceptance sampling tests under uncertain product quality, we show
that, depending on the sampling technology, the decentralized supply-chain structure may lead to a
distortion in product quality. We also explore the effects of different pricing and regulatory options of
vertical control on product quality and the distribution of the total supply-chain profi t. In addition, we
use an exploratory case study of the 20 08 adulterated milk incident in China to investigate practical
issues in ensuring product quality/safety in food supply chain management. Our analytical results and
two comparative cases show that, instead of the common “poor quality ” misperception of food products
from global emerging markets, it is actually the poor vertical control strategy for managing the food
supply chain quality and risk that caused the adulterated milk incident. A number of other important
managerial and policy insights and implications regarding supply chain design, informational visibility,
corporate social responsibility, and regulatory action in managing the global food supply chain quality
and risk are also discussed.