Legislative Process in the Food Chain: The UNs Codex Alimentarius - Research Paper Example

Food is the most traded item in global trade but there are numerous safety issues related to it. The increasing global trade of food has resulted in increasing concern about standards, hygiene, and safety (Cuffaro & Liu, 2007). Food transportation from one part of the world to another has been made easy by new advanced preservation technologies but they are also not good enough to ensure food safety and save humanity from food menaces. Food safety concerns are shared obligations of every society and government at the private level or the public level (Egendorf, 2000). To ensure safety there are many safety codes and practices which are required to be fulfilled before trading food. Governments in their respective countries have been keen to develop food safety policies that are targeted to control and regulate the whole system of the food trade. Consequently, it is assumed that by efficient controls and regulations, every country can guarantee its national food safety (Sherrow, 2008).

Implementation of food safety regulations asserts that every individual in the food chain system has the responsibility to demonstrate acceptance and conduct trade of food items considering the regulatory standards. In this regard governments usually carry out investigations and detect the potential threats of food trade taking place below the par standards. It is argued that food safety is a shared responsibility but the more burden of this responsibility lies on corporations and food chains that trade food.

Food safety requires those corporations and food chains to define their private standards either they work for profit or they are non-governmental organizations. These regulations can better serve the purpose when are rooted in the whole setup from the private farmer to the trader to the national to the international level (Griffith, 2005). Generally, these standards are set forward bearing in mind the national demands of locals. In this regard people and society also play their part in defining their desired level of safety.