ISO 9000 standards have become normal business practices in the European food sector. The reason is that it meets widely differing objectives in the member states and can meet the needs of widely differing legal systems. It also appears that ISO certification has increased the efficiency of the whole food chain. Such argument is used in this article to show that ISO certification can generate gains to consumers and food processors. The case of beef processing in the United Kingdom is analyzed using the framework of interlinked markets. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ISO 9000 standards have become normal business practices in the European food sector. The reason is that it meets widely differing objectives in the member states and can meet the needs of widely differing legal systems. It also appears that ISO certification has increased the efficiency of the whole food chain. Such argument is used in this article to show that ISO certification can generate gains to consumers and food processors. The case of beef processing in the United Kingdom is analyzed using the framework of interlinked markets. ᮊ 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISO 9000 standards represent a new development in the European Union (EU) food sector. There are several factors pointing toward wide spread adoption of ISO standards, and toward it becoming an accepted business practice in the European market. The most important of these factors is the active support of national governments of several member states. 1 ISO certification meets widely differing legal systems and provides some guarantee of market access in the ex-port markets. It also appears to have increased the efficiency of the entire food chain. 2 Furthermore, it could be shown that wide spread certification can generate gains to consumers and producers, which is the purpose of this study. ISO 9000 is a series of six standards: 8402, 9000 to 9004 that detail internationally accepted procedures and guidelines to maintain quality in product design, production, installation and servicing. 3 ISO 9000 and 9004 are two standards to help firms design the system internally and choose a quality model. ISO 9001-3 are models for systems of different stringency for external presentation in contractual or non-contractual relationships. ISO represents generic standards developed by the International Standards Organization with its headquarter in Geneva, Switzerland. The standards are based on BSI 5750; the quality assurance standards developed by the British standards Institute. After their release in ry requirements. Food and other product safety regulations enforced by governments represent "technical requirement."In the United Kingdom (UK), two levels of factors account for the wide-spread adoption of ISO 9000 standards. At the EU level the Single Market Program required the dismantling of customs and other programs calling for inspections at national borders. 4 Thus, countries could no longer maintain food safety programs that required product inspection as part of the regulatory institutions. The alternative offered was the "Principle of Mutual Recognition." This required that member states accept the food safety and quality regimes of other member states. Mutual recognition did not work mainly because there was no agreement on what constitutes safe food, but countries could not institute border inspections. ISO 9000 certification, thus, was seen as an approach to overcoming this regulatory vacuum and increasing the safety and wholesomeness of imported food. The other important factor that favored the adoption of ISO at the UK level was the 1990 Food Safe...
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