Regulatory Science in EU Food Risk Governance

Why scientific expertise is used for problem-solving purposes under a certain set of circumstances while under others it is not? Although this question is essential to the study of epistemic politics, our knowledge on the factors explaining expertise influence is fragmented. Understanding regulatory science practices - success/failure to rely on scientific evidence - is of particular importance as expertise plays an increasingly relevant role in the EU politics. This paper sheds light on the impact of expertise in EU food risk regulation. The paper suggests a theoretical model for explaining diverse scientific expertise use. It relies on a new qualitative data that combines a variety of data sources including a qualitative text analysis of scientific outputs produced by European Food Safety Authority and rich interview materials with a wide variety of actors involved in the process. The paper suggests an in-depth analysis of scientific expertise use across four policy issues.