Co-regulation as a possible model for food safety governance: Opportunities for public–private partnerships

With increasing public pressure on government agencies to be more prescriptive and proactive in their regulation of the food industry, but obstacles to achieve this, this restricted-access paper explores the potential of co-regulation, with public and private sectors working hand-in-hand to deliver safer food at lower (regulatory) cost. In particular, the authors look at the co-regulation of food safety in the UK and North America where there are distinct differences in the established regulatory processes. The authors conclude that opportunities clearly exist, to varying degrees in the different countries analysed, but that considerable obstacles remain to the widespread adoption of co-regulatory practices in the area of food safety.