Understanding complex governance relationships in food safety regulation: The RIT model as a theoretical lens

In this contribution we discuss the added value of the RIT model for the analysis of complex governance relationships in the regulation of food safety. By exploring regimes of food safety involving the European Union and the Global Food Safety Initiative, we highlight the diverse and complex relationships among the actors in public, private and hybrid regimes of food safety regulation. Using schematic figures, we extend the basic RIT model to more closely fit the reality of (hybrid) governance relationships in the modern regulation of food safety. We argue that the model usefully facilitates the disaggregation of these regimes into analytical sub-units or ‘regulatory chains’, in which each actor in its own way contributes to and affects the regulatory process. Finally, we critically assess what the RIT model adds to alternative theoretical approaches in identifying, mapping and explaining the different roles actors play vis-à-vis others in regulatory regimes.