Who should keep our food safe?
On 9th of February 2013, Aldi, a supermarket, confirmed that some of its frozen beef products contained 30% to 100% horse meat. The incident raises interest in a repeatedly debated topic: cost versus food safety.
Aldi’s horse meat issue had two distinctive natures. First, the supermarket had been supplied by a complex chain of overseas suppliers that they failed to keep track. Aldi was supplied by a French company Comigel, supplied by Spanghero, which claimed the “beef” had come from Romania. While the globalization process has allowed businesses to seek ways to lower cost of production, it also has made processes complex and difficult to maintain transparency and traceability.
Second, no one understood where responsibility lay. Each of the suppliers blamed each other. Suppliers also blamed the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for inadequate checking. FSA had been suffering from cost cuts, which reduced the amount of food checked by 30%.
Here, we see a mix of “government responsibilities” and “business responsibilities”. Friedman argues “business” should clearly distinguish themselves from “government” to pursue a truly free market. While I agree with his argument, I also believe that limits of government in carrying out food safety can be overcome if businesses also devoted themselves to checking food quality. After all, businesses operates on the interests of the consumer, and food safety is one of the interests.
While there are potential threats of economy becoming collectivized, by assisting the government to ensure food safety and cooperating companies in theory should be able to provide decent quality food at a lower cost.