風險溝通在食安管理中之必要性：以狂牛症事件為例

The Necessity of Risk Communication in the Food Safety Regulation: In the Instance of Mad Cow Disease

「風險溝通」強調利害關係人之間水平式的對話與資訊交換，其目的是為了使食安管理措施更為周延並符合審議式民主的需求。然而，將風險溝通納入食安管理，會不會對科學專業的判斷或政府管理工作的進行產生妨礙？此問題的背後至少包含了兩個值得細究但一直存有爭論的議題：1.風險溝通是否有助於治理食安問題，以致於具有重要性而必須被重視？2.風險溝通是否僅對消費者有利，但卻不利於食品業者或供應方，甚至會增加政府行政上的成本？本文認為，從風險管理的角度觀之，風險溝通能夠將消費者的真實需求或憂慮融入到食品安全的管理政策中。此種治理機制符合民主政治對於問責性的要求，讓風險承擔者知曉在與其自身利害相關之食安法制中究竟存有什麼風險，以及這些風險可能為自己帶來的利弊得失。當制度上利害關係人皆能獲得充分資訊時，其風險承擔或風險迴避的能力將隨之獲得提升，此結果對於食品市場的交易秩序將具有正面裨益，亦有益於政府食安管理目標之達成。

The risk communication under the context of food safety emphasizes at the perspectives of “horizontal communication” and “information exchange” between the stakeholders. The purpose of that is to regulate the food safety more compactly and further to fulfill the requirement of deliberative democracy. However, will the application of risk communication into the food safety management impact the embedded scientific neutral in the regulation system and thus interfere the agency’s decision making? Following this question, two controversial issues should be researched: 1. does the application of risk communication truly benefit the food safety management so that its cruciality to the food safety regulation deserves more spotlight? On the other hand, 2. does the risk communication only benefit the consumers, but not the food industry or suppliers; or even increase the administrative cost unexpectedly? In this article, we claim that the application of the risk communication can practically take consumers’ need and their worries into consideration while improving the food safety regulation and relevant decision making. Moreover, the governance of the food safety with risk communication fulfills the requirement of accountability in modern democracy, in which the risk takers understand what they exactly bear under current food safety law and the pros and cons it brings. Ideally, if the information in the food system is fully disclosed to the stakeholders, all of the stakeholders will then be equipped with stronger capability to prevent or take the underlying risk; which results in a positive effect to the transaction order on the food market, as well as the achievement of the goal of food safety regulation.