The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered vulnerabilities and challenges in safety in both the food chain and food supplies. It has highlighted the crucial role plaid by developing nations in securing food chain safety and that rules and sanctions alone cannot achieve desired food safety and security goals. It has stressed changes in consumers’ trends and the need for regulators to balance different risks in their response. This report describes how regulators around the world – at regional, national and international levels – have dealt with the need to adapt to secure effective and efficient regulatory responses. Organisational behaviour has taken on greater importance in making regulations more responsive to human behaviour. Regulators have recognised the increased potential of digital tools to strengthen risk-based food safety regulatory delivery, and challenges related to the use of these tools. As economic recovery will need optimising regulatory systems, regulators have now an opportunity to strengthen and reprioritise their approach to regulatory delivery. This report shows that one way forward is by ensuring that the regulatory system is risk-based and flexible.
For further information, please contact Florentin Blanc, OECD Regulatory Policy Division.