Food Safety Through Food Irradiation: Should it be Adopted More by the EU?

Food Safety Through Food Irradiation: Should it be Adopted More by the EU? Food Irradiation is a food safety technology that can eliminate disease‐causing germs from foods. Faut il encourager ?irradiation pour améliorer la sécurité des aliments en Europe? ?irradiation des aliments est une technique de sécurité alimentaire, qui permet ?en éliminer les germes pathogènes. De même que la pasteurisation du lait, le traitement par des radiations ionisantes permet de tuer les bactéries susceptibles de causer des infections ?origine alimentaire. Celles‐ci sont toujours présentes, et ont de graves conséquences tant pour la santé que pour ?économie. Aux Etats‐Unis, ?irradiation est une technique autorisée pour beaucoup de produits alimentaires. Dans ce pays, le nombre de restaurants et de supermarchés vendant des produits irradiés a augmenté de façon considérable au cours des trois dernières années. Des expérimentations économiques montrent que les consommateurs américains sont disposés à dépenser pour le b?uf irradié des sommes sensiblement supérieures aux suppléments de coûts associés à?irradiation. En Europe, ?utilisation de ?irradiation comme technique de conservation des aliments, susceptible de s'insérer dans des programmes de sécurité alimentaire rigoureux, est beaucoup plus limitée. Jusqu'ici, laliste des produits dont ?irradiation est autorisée dans ?ensemble de la Communauté Européenne ne contient qu'une seule catégorie de produits alimentaires:les herbes aromatiques, épices, et assaisonnements ?origine végétale. Avec la globalisation des circuits commerciaux et le renforcement, exigé par les agences de régulation, des normes de sécurité du champ à la fourchette, la généralisation de l0'irradiation des produits alimentaires devrait profiter à?ensemble des producteurs et des consommateurs européens. Nahrungsmittelsicherheit durch Bestrahlung von Nahrungsmitteln: Sollte dies in der EU verstärkt angewandt werden? Bei der Bestrahlung von Nahrungsmitteln handelt es sich um ein Verfahren zur Gewährleistung der Nahrungsmittelsicherheit, bei der krankheitsverursachende Keime in den Nahrungsmitteln abgetötet werden. Wie bei der Pasteurisierung von Milch können Bakterien mit Hilfe von ionisierenden Strahlen in Nahrungsmitteln abgetötet werden, die anderenfalls durch Nahrungsmittel übertragbare Erkrankungen hervorrufen würden. Diese Erkrankungen stellen eine permanente Bedrohung dar und Ziehen ernstzunehmende Konsequenzen für Gesundheit und Wirtschaft nach sich. In den USA dürfen verschiedene Nahrungsmittelarten bestrahlt werden. In den vergangenen drei Jahren hat die Anzahl der Supermärkte und Restaurants in den USA, die strahlungsbehandelte Produkte anbieten, enorm zugenommen. Erste ökonomische Versuche in den USA legen es nahe, dass die Bereitschaft der Verbraucher, einen höheren Preis für bestrahltes Rinderhackfleisch zu zahlen, sehr viel höher ist als die mit der Bestrahlung verbundenen zusätzlichen Kosten. Die Anwendung der Bestrahlung von Nahrungsmitteln als Werkzeug zur Gewährleistung der Nahrungsmittelsicherheit, welches die strengenNahrungsmittelsicherheitspro‐gramme ergänzen könnte, ist in Europa eher begrenzt. Bislang handelt es sich bei den Produkten, die für die Bestrahlung innerhalb der gesamten EU zugelassen sind, nur um eine einzige Nahrungsmittelklasse: getrocknete aromatische Kräuter und Gewürze. Durch die zunehmende Nachfrage der Aufsichtsbehörden nach Nahrungsmittelsicherheit ?vom Stall bis zum Teller? und die Globalisierung des Nahrungsmittelhandels könnten die Produzenten und Verbraucher in der EU von einer verstärkten Anwendung der Bestrahlung von Nahrungsmitteln profitieren. Like pasteurization of milk, treating food with ionizing radiation can kill bacteria that would otherwise cause foodborne disease. Foodborne illnesses are ever present and have serious health and economic consequences. In the US, food irradiation is approved for use in various foods. The number of supermarkets and restaurants in the US that offer irradiated products has increased dramatically in the last three years. Preliminary economic experiments in the US suggest that consumer willingness to pay for irradiated ground beef is substantially greater than the additional costs associated with irradiation. The use of food irradiation as a food safety tool that could complement rigorous food safety programmes is rather limited in Europe. So far, the list of products authorized for irradiation within the whole EU contains only a single food category: dried aromatic herbs, spices, and vegetable seasonings. With increasing demand by regulatory authorities on food safety from ‘farm to fork’ and the globalization of food trade, EU producers and consumers may benefit from wider adoption of irradiation of food products.     

Organizational slack and firm performance during economic transitions: two studies from an emerging economy. Justin Tan and Mike W. Peng. Strategic Management Journal 24(13) 2003, 1249–1263

The original article to which this erratum refers was published in Strategic Management Journal 24 (13): 1249–1263 (2003).     

An Analysis of Differences in Earnings Between Small and Large Commercial Banks

This paper introduces a simple, yet rich, measure of efficiency changes based on the revenue-generating-ability (RGA) principle. Using this principle, we explain the connections between efficiency changes and the variables, such as pretax profits, interest expense, non-interest expense, profit margins, loan loss provision, and asset quality. These connections are used to explain earnings differences between small and large commercial banks.     

Copyright Damages and Statistics

This paper discusses the statistical issues that arise in conducting an economic damages analysis in the context of a litigation matter involving copyrights. Calculating damages in copyright cases turns out to be a natural application for econometric modelling methods. Surprisingly, elementary statistical issues can be a source of significant debate between the experts in such matters. In this paper, we present a case study and illustrate how issues such as interpretation of p -values and what "rejection of the null hypothesis" really "means" in such matters.     

Costs of financial instability, household-sector balance sheets and consumption

Extant work on costs of financial instability focuses on fiscal costs and declines in aggregate GDP following banking crises. We estimate effects of banking and currency crises on consumption in 19 OECD countries, showing consumption plays an important role in the adjustment following a crisis, and effects are not captured solely by the impact of crises on standard consumption determinants, income and wealth. Additional effects, attributable to factors such as time-varying confidence, uncertainty and credit rationing, are aggravated by high and rising leverage, despite financial liberalisation easing liquidity constraints. High leverage implies that banking crises taking place now could have greater incidence than in the past.     

Model-based control charts in phase 1 statistical process control

In this paper, a general method of constructing control charts for preliminary analysis of individual observations is presented, which is based on recursive score residuals. A simulation study shows that certain implementations of these charts are highly effective in detecting assignable causes.     

Introducing Time‐to‐Educate in a Job‐Search Model

Transition patterns from school to work differ considerably across OECD countries. Some countries exhibit high youth unemployment rates, which can be considered an indicator of the difficulty facing young people trying to integrate into the labour market. At the same time, education is a time‐consuming process, and enrolment and dropout decisions depend on expected duration of studies as well as on job prospects with and without completed degrees. One way to model entry into the labour market is by means of job‐search models, where the job arrival hazard is a key parameter in capturing the ease or difficulty in finding a job. Standard models of job search and education assume that skills can be upgraded instantaneously (and mostly in the form of on‐the‐job training) at a fixed cost. This paper models education as a time‐consuming process, a concept which we call time‐to‐educate, during which an individual faces the trade‐off between continuing education and taking up a job.     

Making sense of corporate social responsibility in international business: experiences from Shell

International business organizations are regularly addressed on their corporate social responsibility (CSR). As illustrated in this paper, it is not yet clear exactly what CSR means to organizations and how to deal with it. In this paper, the authors explore how a sensemaking approach helps to understand the business challenges of CSR within an organizational context. The theories of Karl Weick are applied to the experiences of CSR in Royal Dutch Shell. The authors argue that the key to CSR in international business organizations is to engage stakeholders and start a process of joint sensemaking. Three main competencies are crucial in this: the competency to engage stakeholders through listening and understanding; the creation of an organizational language so that CSR makes sense to members of the organization; and recognizing the momentum of taking action.