Sound and safe: regulatory practices and harm reduction in the Belgian meat sector

This dissertation examines the regulation of the meat sector and the varying factors that inform monitoring, enforcement and compliance by the sector’s regulators and regulatees. In this study,  I have pursued two aims. First, I have examined which rule violations occur in the meat sector and how regulators and regulatees assess these rule violations (a.o. in view of their harmfulness) and respond to them. Second, I have identified and examined the factors that construct regulatory practices in this sector and examined to what extent these practices are inspired by the goal of harm reduction and prevention. In doing so, this study draws on, and at the same time adds to the small but growing criminological literature on food-related crime. It has also been inspired by, and contributes to, the field of regulation and governance studies.

Focusing mainly on food safety and animal welfare regulation, primarily in slaughterhouses, I have conducted 77 semi-structured interviews with public and private regulatory actors, criminal justice actors, NGOs, actors working in the beef and/or pork sectors and their representatives. Additionally, I have analysed criminal and administrative cases involving rule violations in the beef and pork supply chains.

My literature review and document analysis show that reducing harms to consumers and animals are important aims of public rules and private standards - along with the promotion of economic and reputational interests of the sector and its regulators. These aims sometimes conflict, as demonstrated by crises and crimes in the meat sector (e.g., the BSE crisis, illegal use of hormones), which have been important instigators for changes in meat sector regulation.

My field work shows that field-level regulators and regulatees balance the harms, benefits, and wrongfulness of behaviour in their daily decisions in monitoring, enforcement and compliance. The way they perceive harm seems partly rational, fuelled by measurable elements of actual or potential harm available about a rule violation. However, more subjective elements also fuel harm perceptions, which in turn affect judgements about the wrongfulness of acts and actors. Apart from harm, I have identified many other factors and social interactions that shape regulatory practices. These can be summarised as the specific food safety and animal welfare challenges that are characteristic of the slaughter of animals, the characteristics of meat regulation that respond to the sector’s particularities, and power dynamics in the sector and its regulation. The factors influence the way the regulators and regulatees interact, and to what extent these actors uphold the ideals of ‘sound’ and ‘safe’ meat in practice.