Between Market and the State: Regulating Food Safety in the Wake of Pet Food and Frozen Dumplings Incidents

Dongsheng Zang, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Abstract

Food safety has become a widespread concern for consumers in China’s major trading partners. This article looks into the details of legal responses to food safety incidents in Japan, the United States and China. What the three countries have in common is what I label “inspection-based” approach to food safety. In Japan, after the frozen dumpling incident, people are proposing setting up a “comprehensive” regulatory agency. In the United States, the Bush Administration signed a bilateral agreement with China, making China’s product quality agency—AQSIQ—a certifying agent of the FDA. In China, the government launches national law enforcement campaigns on food safety. This article argues that the inspection-based approach would not achieve food safety. The article proposes an alternative, the so-called “liability-based” approach to food safety. The benefit of liability-based approach is that it brings consumer groups and market forces into the regulatory process.