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7. Paulus, above n 3.

8. Political drivers are returned to below n 94.

9. See Fitzpatrick v Kelly (1873) LR 8 QB 337; Roberts v Egerton (1874) LR 9 QB 494.

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33. Wilhelmsson, T ‘Consumer law and social justice’ in Ramsay, I (ed) Consumer Law in the Global Economy: National and International Dimensions (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997) pp 222–224. It should be noted however, that Wilhelmsson is also generally supportive of mandatory standards, ‘general rules that make the prevailing standard obligatory’ (p 255).Google Scholar

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49. Henson and Traill, above n 22, at 156.

50. Buzby and Frenzen suggest that there are between 6.5 million and 33 million cases of food borne illness in the US each year ( Buzby, Jc and Frenzen, Pd ‘Food safety and product liability’ (1999) 24 Food Policy 637 at 637).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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54. See the differing, competing, definitions of the concept offered by ibid, at 54 and Ramsay, above n 18, pp 99–100.

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72. Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, s 58.

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79. Although see the McDonalds Hot Drinks Group Litigation Order, available at http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/150_552.htm last visited 26 October 2008.

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82. See eg Medicines Act 1968.

83. EU Cosmetic Products Regulation 1223/2009, which contains a similar general safety requirement to the General Product Safety Directive, but goes beyond this, governing eg nanomaterials.

84. See eg Medical Devices Regulations 2002.

85. Watson, Jl and Caldwell, Ml ‘Introduction’ in Watson, Jl and Caldwell, Ml (eds) The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005) 3 at 3ff noting ‘food everywhere is not just about eating, and eating (at least among humans) is never simply a biological process.’ Similarly, the regulation of food is never simply an economic process.Google Scholar

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96. Governmental approaches of this sort may be seen from a market perspective as a coordination solution to market failure allowing consumers to benefit from economies of scale and reducing their transaction costs.

97. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art 11(1).

98. Article 51 obliges EU institutions to ‘respect the rights, observe the principles and promote the application’ of the Charter.

99. In the late 1990's Commissioner Bonino stated ‘The consumer has a fundamental right to safe food, and I intend to do everything in my power to ensure that this right becomes a reality.’ See ReleasePress ‘ Launching of the “European food safety campaign”’ 15 October 1998, available at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/98/900%26format=HTML%26aged=1%26language=EN%26guiLanguage=en (last visited 28^th April 2012).

100. See above n 25, text. Hennessy, Roosen and Jensen, above n 30, at 86 states that without confidence in the market the consequence of a food safety breakdown may be that ‘a whole line of products, whether or not of suspect quality in the eyes of the experts, may be tarred in the marketplace.’

101. Ritvo, H ‘Mad cow mysteries’ in Watson, Jl and Caldwell, Ml (eds) The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005).Google Scholar

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103. See Henson and Traill, above n 22, at 156.

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106. Schedule 1A (now repealed and replaced).

107. The Pennington Group Report on the Circumstances Leading to the 1996 Outbreak of Infection with E.coli 0157 in Central Scotland, the Implications for Food Safety and the Lessons to be Learned (Edinburgh: Scottish Office, 1998) para 7.32d.

108. Products that are particularly likely to impact on vulnerable consumers may be regulated beyond the requirements of the General Food Regulations. See eg Directive 2006/141/EC which contains special rules which apply to infant formulae and follow on formulae.

109. Directive 2009/48.

110. Directive 2009/48 Annex II(V)(1).