Paper short abstract:

Developing the idea of “precision regulation” in food safety, this talk highlights socio-technical, political, and ecological implications that escape regulatory control.

Paper long abstract:

For some decades there has been a gap in the US meat safety regime between an ideal of molecular risk management and a practice of hazard reduction through process control. The gap has been one of technique and precision. That is, in the absence of real-time monitoring of molecular and biological contaminants, and a nuanced understanding the precise organisms that lead to food poisoning, meat safety regulations have relied on indicator contaminants to track the efficacy of sanitary practices. But, recent advances such as whole genome sequencing and rapid molecular assays are increasingly making possible what we might call “precision regulation” in food safety.

On the one hand, this development holds promise for enacting a risk-based food safety regime in which a wider range of organisms are deemed to be adulterants and banned from the food supply. On the other hand, a reliance on molecular and biological precision brings with it a range of socio-technical, political, and ecological implications that escape regulatory control.