Food safety regulation in Europe: how to measure performance and effectiveness

The paper aims to review the existing empirical literature on food safety regulation in Europe, in order to assess how performance and effectiveness are measured. The paper explores the main empirical contributions that describe the measurement process that has been applied in the literature to operationalize some key variables. Those variables have been identified through a preliminary literature review. This allowed to draw a general picture of the state of the art in the field of food regulation and to go deeper into unsolved research questions. Furthermore, measurement and operationalization processes are assessed. The method used is systematic review, which allows replicability and relies on the key principles of objectivity and scientific rigor. The paper eventually discusses the results in order to set the ground for further empirical analysis on the impact that the institutional regime (i.e. regulation, regulators and controllers) has on the effectiveness of food regulation.