The Search for International Food Safety Regulation. From the Commission Internationale pour la repression des falsifications to the Societe universelle de la Croix Blanche (1879-1909)

摘要

In the late-nineteenth and the early-twentieth centuries, food safety regulation experienced important changes throughout Europe and North America with the passing of several national food laws. Rising food adulteration and constant denunciation by scientists, writers, politicians or consumers, prompted the passing of these new laws at a local level. However, the laws proved limited and unsatisfactory in the context of the increasingly industrialised and globalised food chain The growing international dimension of the food market demanded international agreements in food quality and safety regulation, and the shifttowards control mainly based on chemical analysis led to a new regulation strategy: the search for standards. This paper analyses these turning points in regulation by considering the major international initiatives around the turn of the century.