The principle of equivalence

The individual sanitary measures that comprise food inspection and certific ation systems often vary from country to country, and determination of thei r equivalence is arguably the most important contemporary food safety issue in international food trade. Development of a framework for judgement of e quivalence 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 diffe rent 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.