Title

Offsetting behavior and the benefits of food safety regulation

Abstract

Many regulatory, safety and health policies are adopted to reduce harm to potential victims from accidents and other harmful events. Attenuation and, sometimes, even reversal of the direct policy effect on expected harm may occur because of offsetting behavior (OB) by potential victims, as they reduce care in response to the policy. This research determines that OB in consumers may be responsible for an increase in food poisoning cases after new, more stringent food safety policies are enacted and implemented in the food processing sector. This behavioral anomaly indicates serious deviation from rational choice and possibly helps explain the growing gap between the decrease in pathogen bacteria level recorded in meat processing plants and the increasing number of outbreaks of food poisoning cases caused by these bacteria.

Department(s)

Agribusiness, Education, and Communication

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-4565.2008.00138.x

Publication Date

2-1-2009

Journal Title

Journal of Food Safety

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