Pettitt R G
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Room 204, 1A, Page Street, London, SW1P 4PQ, United Kingdom.
Rev Sci Tech. 2001 Aug;20(2):584-97.
Since the 1950s, consumers in the United Kingdom (UK) have learned to expect cheap, but safe food. A number of incidents in the 1980s and 1990s caused public alarm and loss of confidence in the role of producers and the Government in the food supply. This review examines the impact of recent food scares in the UK, where scrutiny of the food industry has led to the introduction of new controls at all stages of production. Animal feed manufacture, livestock production, slaughter and the use or disposal of animal by-products are now controlled in ways unimagined prior to the identification of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the late 1980s. Traceability has become an important issue for consumers and, by proxy, for the multiple retailers that service consumer needs. Retailers have increasingly managed the food chain to ensure high standards that can be proven by audit. The retailers have also found that a commercial advantage can be gained from certain aspects of source verification. In order to maximise sales in a depressed market, producer groups have themselves developed a multiplicity of assurance schemes.
自20世纪50年代以来，英国消费者已习惯于期望获得价格低廉但安全的食品。20世纪80年代和90年代发生的一系列事件引发了公众的恐慌，并使他们对生产商和政府在食品供应方面所扮演的角色丧失信心。本综述探讨了近期英国食品恐慌事件的影响，在英国，对食品行业的审查促使在生产的各个阶段都引入了新的管控措施。如今，动物饲料生产、牲畜养殖、屠宰以及动物副产品的使用或处置，都受到了自20世纪80年代末发现牛海绵状脑病（疯牛病）之前无法想象的方式的管控。可追溯性已成为消费者以及代表消费者需求的众多零售商所关注的重要问题。零售商越来越多地对食物链进行管理，以确保能够通过审核证明的高标准。零售商还发现，从源头核查的某些方面可以获得商业优势。为了在低迷的市场中实现销售额最大化，生产商团体自身也制定了多种保障计划。
