Sandra N. Hurd

The European Food Safety Authority

There have been several “food scares” in Europe and across the Atlantic in recent years. They have led to nationally orientated reaction – often in the face of otherwise apparently binding international commitments. This article is concerned with such events and the planning, development and emergence of an international food safety agency for the European Union, taking into account “enlargement” and certain transatlantic perspectives. Concludes that the appliance of science should supersede the politics of nation states and the desire for re‐election, while bearing in mind that this is an unlikely dream.