Public and Private Food Standards

The globalization of food supply chains and a series of food crisis in the past few decades have increased the need for new instruments that allow to credibly transfer information about the credence attributes of food products along the supply chain. Public and private food standards provide such instruments. First, different ways of classifying standards are discussed. Next, the chapter provides examples of business-to-consumer and business-to-business food standards. The final section discusses the interplay between public and private standards. In conclusion, the proliferation of private schemes of food safety and quality in recent years has shifted intervention away from the citizen to the consumer and from public responsibility to the market.