Most countries have measures in place to monitor food safety, implemented by centralized government agencies. Some of these include the State Food and Drug Administration of China, the The Global Food Safety Initiative was set up in 2000 in response to the request of around 30 CEOs of international retailers. It was initiated at a time when there were reports of a number of food safety scandals, including the “mad cow” BSE crisis. Since BSE was reported in a number of European countries in 2001, Australia took action to refine its food safety rules for imported beef and beef products.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) was created to represent a whole range of retailers and is used globally as a framework to any business to assist the production of safe food and the selection of reliable suppliers.