Food recalls are important for two reasons. One is that they mitigate harm when product failures occur. Another is that they augment incentives to invest in safety. When recalls are justified for their mitigation value, it makes sense that regulatory bodies be granted more control of the recall...

On a given school day, over 31 million lunches and 10.1 million breakfasts are served to children in participating American schools through the USDA National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. The United States Department of Agriculture reimburses schools for some or all of their costs....

This study uses plant-level micro‐data over 1987–2002 and a translog cost function to examine structural change in the cattle and chicken slaughter and pork processing and sausage‐making industries during a period of increasing food safety oversight. Results suggest that labor and capital...

Over 30 million lunches and 9.8 million breakfasts are served every day to children in participating American schools through the USDA National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. It is challenging for participating local school food authorities (SFAs) to serve appealing, healthful meals...

Food safety technology can increase a company’s capacity to prevent a foodborne contamination. A food safety audit—a quality control tool in which an auditor observes whether a plant’s processing practices and technologies are compatible with good food safety practices—can indicate how...

The compliance costs of the Pathogen Reduction Hazard Analysis Critical Control Program (PR/HACCP) rule have been controversial. Previous reports have used limited data to evaluate its overall and component costs. This paper addresses those deficiencies by examining compliance costs with data...

This article investigates the motives for mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the U.S. meat products industry from 1977 to 1992. Results show that acquired meat and poultry plants were very productive before mergers, and that all but the very largest meat slaughter and processing plants and all...