Food Safety in France, from Mad Cow Disease to Avian Flu

• Main Author: Keck, Frédéric
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale (LAS), École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2010
• Subjects: sciences sociales; [SHS.SCIPO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Political science; Avian flu
• Online Access: https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01069391; https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01069391/document; https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01069391/file/food-safety-in-france-from-mad-cow.pdf

The Chinese Food Safety Law, that was voted in February 2009 and comes into effect in June, gives the Minister of Health a greater role in the management of food safety. It creates a Food Safety Commission to coordinate the action of previous governmental agencies such as the Minister of Agriculture or the Administration for Quality Surveillance, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ). It follows a series of crises revealing flaws in the Chinese food safety chain, such as the tainted milk scandal in the end of 2008 causing the intoxication of 300 000 babies by melamine (Keck 2009) (.).