Food Safety Innovation in the United States: Evidence from the Meat Industry

by Elise Golan, Tanya Roberts, Elisabete Salay, Julie Caswell, Michael Ollinger, and Danna Moore

Recent industry innovations improving the safety of the Nation's meat supply range from new pathogen tests, high-tech equipment, and supply chain management systems, to new surveillance networks. Despite these and other improvements, the market incentives that motivate private firms to invest in innovation seem to be fairly weak. Results from an ERS survey of U.S. meat and poultry slaughter and processing plants and two case studies of innovation in the U.S. beef industry reveal that the industry has developed a number of mechanisms to overcome that weakness and to stimulate investment in food safety innovation.

Keywords: food safety, innovation, meat, asymmetric information, Beef Steam Pasteurization System, Bacterial Pathogen Sampling and Testing Program, foodborne illness, HACCP survey, branding, food processing, food retailing, e. coli, beef, recall

In this publication...

• Entire Report
• Report summary
• Abstract, Acknowledgment, and Contents
• Summary
• Introduction
• Part I: Theory: The Economics of Food Safety Innovation
• Part II: Empirical Investigation: A Closer Look at Food Safety Drivers in the Meat Industry
• Food Safety Investments in the Meat and Poultry Industries
• A Case Study of the Equipment Market and the Invention of the Beef Carcass Steam Pasteurization System
• Innovation for Microbial Pathogen Control in the Supply Chain for Hamburger Patties
• Part III: Market and Regulatory Incentives for Food Safety Innovation
• References