Enforcing Compliance with Food Regulation: Modalities in the Relationship Between Public Enforcement Agencies and Private Parties

The past decades have shown two important transitions in food governance in Europe. First, the increased role of private actors in global food safety regulation and the development of retail driven private food safety regulation from the 1990s onwards. Second, the increased role of the European Union and transnational governmental organisations. These transitions pose challenges for national food safety authorities. In the Netherlands, the public food authority is also confronted with limited resources available for enforcement. Food governance is characterized by multiple regulatory arrangements involving multiple public and private actors at multiple levels. The past decade we observe new emerging relationships between public enforcement authorities and private parties. In this paper we will discuss different modalities of cooperation and collaboration between public food authorities and private parties such as food firms, certification and auditing bodies and industry associations. We will analyse various forms of collaboration of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) with food businesses and certification industry. This includes public recognition of private norms and control systems, inclusion of public prescriptions in private food schemes and controls, and agreements between the public authority and private firms or sectors of industry regulating reciprocal obligations with respect to compliance and controlling compliance.