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Food Standards

  • Living reference work entry
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Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics

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Synonyms

Exports; Food safety regulations; Global food system; International trade; Poverty alleviation; Sanitary ;phytosanitary standards; Technical regulations

Introduction

Food safety standards are a part of technical regulations categorized as sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) regulations that principally aim to ensure food safety of consumers and plant and animal health (Josling et al. 2004). Due to their potential adverse effect on international trade, however, the growing attention has recently been paid to food safety standards and other technical regulations as trade has been substantially liberalized through tariff reduction. Inherent difficulty in reaching a desirable policy solution regarding food safety standards lies in the fact that there are various losses and benefits associated with their application. Because food safety standards are designed to achieve the level of safety that is acceptable to the society, reduction or elimination of food safety standards to advance...

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Notes

  1. 1.

    JECFA estimated that implementing a 10 ppb total aflatoxin standard leads to a risk of 39 cancer deaths per year per billion people, with an uncertainty range between 7 and 164 people. In comparison, a 20 ppb standard yields a risk of 41 cancers per year per billion people with an uncertainty range between 8 and 173 cancer deaths. This implies that reducing the standard from 20 to 10 ppb in countries where percentage of carriers of hepatitis B1 is around 1 % (e.g., members of the European community) would result in a drop in the population risk of approximately two cancer deaths a year per billion people.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University, 1-31 Machikaneyama-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-0043, Japan

    Prof. Tsunehiro Otsuki

  2. Kumamoto Prefectural University, 3-1-100 Tsukide, Higashiku, Kumamoto, 862-8502, Japan

    Keiichiro Honda

Authors
  1. Prof. Tsunehiro Otsuki
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  2. Keiichiro Honda
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Correspondence to Keiichiro Honda .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Michigan State University Dept. Philosophy, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    Paul B. Thompson

  2. University of North Texas Dept. Philosophy & Religion Studies, Denton, Texas, USA

    David M. Kaplan

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Otsuki, T., Honda, K. (2014). Food Standards. In: Thompson, P., Kaplan, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6167-4_186-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6167-4_186-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6167-4

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