The principle of equivalence

The individual sanitary measures that comprise food inspection and certification systems often vary from country to country, and determination of their equivalence is arguably the most important contemporary food safety issue in international food trade. Development of a framework for judgement of equivalence requires a comprehensive understanding of risk analysis and food safety objectives. These management tools allow the application of agreed principles and guidelines in an iterative stepwise process, so that a different sanitary measure can be judged by an importing country as achieving it's chosen level of consumer protection. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.