Food safety has moved up the agenda in all industrialised countries in recent years, partly as a result of successive food scandals and its consequences for consumer confidence. Governments have tightened both product standards and standards for the processes through which food is produced, transported and processed. Business, too, has had to respond. It faces legal requirements to meet ever more stringent public food safety standards and the need to maintain customers' confidence at a time when global supply chains are becoming more complex. Private voluntary standards developed by groups of companies are one response to this challenge.