When faced with tackling food-borne illness, regulators have a number of competing goals. They must investigate in order to discover the source of the illness. Once the source is identified they must take action to prevent further cases of illness occurring. Finally, once the illness is under control, they may wish to take enforcement action against those responsible. Regulating Food-Borne Illness uses interviews and documentary analysis to examine the actions of regulators and considers how they balance these three tasks. Central to the regulators' role is the collection of information. Without information about the source, control or enforcement action cannot be taken. Investigation must therefore take place to produce the necessary information. Utilising theoretical frameworks drawn from regulation and biosecurity, Regulating Food-Borne Illness shows that control is prioritised, and that investigatory steps are chosen in order to ensure that the information necessary for control, rather than enforcement, is collected. This has the effect of reducing the possibility that enforcement action can be taken. The difficulty of evidence gathering and case-building in food-borne illness cases is exposed, and the author considers the methods aimed at reducing the difficulty of bringing successful enforcement action.

11 sectoral and thematic studies on regulatory reform prepared as background to "The OECD report on regulatory reform". These 11 studies assess the developments and results of regulatory reform in OECD countries in: telecommunication services, financial services, professional business service, electricity, agrofood, and product standards and conformity assessment. The thematic studies assess the economy-wide effects of regulatory reform: impacts on competition and consumers, industrial competitiveness and innovation, regulatory quality and public sector reform, and market openness.

Abstract: A reference text for medical students, practicing physicians and food science and technology investigators reviews and summarizes various aspects of foodborne disease diseases food safety. Discussions on foodborne diseases deal with the surveillance, epidemiology, and diagnosis of such diseases that represent significant US public health concerns. Discussions of food safety focus on food additives, including both unintentional (pesticides, animal drugs, food chemicals chemcals) and intentional substances added to foods. Topics on food safety include the role of food additives in food processing, production, packaging, storage and distribution; food safety laws, regulations, monitoring; quality control methods used by food producers to ensure microbiological quality; how food additive safety is assessed; human illness incidents from approved food additives. Information on the functions of direct food additives, GRAS substances, and on related foodborne disease topics is appended. (wz).