The impact of EU public organizational rules and private standards on official food controls

The EU multilevel protection system of the food market is based on three different elements relevant both for private and business operators: the direct effect of organizational norms imposed on the Member States by the recent EU food safety legislation; the role of public control and the integration of private standards in the government structure of a globalized market. This article aims to focus on the problems arising from the integration of the EU and national legal systems about food safety, as well as to interpret the role of private standards, accreditation and public control in the new scenario, characterized by an increasing complexity brought on by the globalization of commerce and the integration of many different legal orders and sources of obligations. The result is a juridical analysis on who controls what and on the basis of which power/rules, taking into account the increasing role of self-regulation in food production and distribution.