suggested the costs of food safety regulation under the PR/HACCP rule would be more than
$0.01 per pound.
This paper uses a translog cost function to examine the cost of effort devoted to
performing sanitation and process control tasks and the cost of using food safety technologies in
the meat slaughter, meat processing, and poultry slaughter and processing industries in 2002.
Results suggest that greater effort devoted to the performance of sanitation and process control
tasks and more use of food safety technologies reduce costs. Results for food safety technology
were significant in meat slaughter; results for effort devoted to the performance of sanitation and
process control tasks were significant in meat slaughter and meat processing. Neither food
safety technology nor the performance of sanitation and process control tasks was significant in
poultry slaughter.
Simulations of the cost function were used to show the direction of cost change and to
evaluate consistency across the industries. Those simulations show steadily rising costs from the
95th to the 5th percentile for effort devoted to the performance of sanitation and process control
tasks in all industries and for the use of food safety technologies in meat slaughter and meat
processing. Poultry slaughter and processing had higher costs associated with lower percentiles
of technology use over the 95th to 25th percentiles but not afterward.
Findings that better performance of sanitation and process control tasks and greater use of
food safety technology are associated with lower costs are not surprising. Companies maintain
quality control departments and invest in food safety technologies to maintain control over
product quality, avoid product recalls, and increase product shelf life. Staffing these quality
control departments may be costly but do not have to excessive because plants choose their own
sanitation and process control tasks and can use a food safety technology that matches their
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