During the past two decades, public awareness and concern regarding food safety in developed countries have increased as a result of a series of highly-publicized food scares and scandals (Henson and Caswell, 1999). In response to these events, regulations governing food production in those countries have been tightened. This has been accompanied by significant institutional changes and intensified border control of food imports in the industrialized countries. Separate and independent regulatory bodies that focus on public health and consumer protection have been set up in Australia, Europe, Japan, New Zealand and the United States of America. In parallel with this development, a number of concerted private initiatives have been undertaken that address consumer confidence regarding food safety together with the tightening of regulations. This has resulted in the proliferation of private standards that are more stringent than public ones. Private standards have been established by major food retailers, food manufacturers and restaurant chains in developed countries, largely to mitigate any reputational or commercial risks arising out of supplier failure. Moreover, private food safety standards are increasingly being used as a means of product differentiation. While public standards can be both mandatory in a legal sense as well as voluntary, private standards are voluntary in kind and are not legally required.