8. Food Security and Safety

Times have changed since the days of royal tasters. As our concerns extend to the rest of the kingdom and beyond national borders, we face the critical need to develop increasingly complex policies to ensure the safety of the mainstream food supply. Incidents involving food contamination, particularly salmonella and E. coli in eggs, peanuts, and produce have been numerous and widespread. Tainted foods have caused illnesses and deaths that perhaps could have been prevented by more rigorous and proactive policies. Recognition has emerged that consumers need greater protection before these outbreaks occur, through more stringent requirements and better enforcement of food safety standards, including inspections. Moreover, traceability and recall mechanisms are necessary to resolve the problems that do arise. Food safety is important for all foods, regardless of the process to produce them. These concerns are heightened in the area of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), where scientific uncertainty compounds the issues in the effort to determine and evaluate the risks of harm to human health and the environment as essential elements in developing food safety regulation.