Legitimation by standards: transnational experts, the European Commission and regulation of novel foods

How do voluntary standards get put to use in European Union policy? A study of how a particular private-sector voluntary standard was imported and developed for use in EU policy offers grounds for interpreting the power relations among carriers of the standard, a transnational group of scientific experts and the European Commission. Far from involving a mere linear transfer, the process of importing a new standard for ensuring the health safety of “novel foods” gave rise to exchanges, competition and disagreement that worked to define the boundaries of the public policy sector and the territory of each group of actors within it. The ground gained by scientific experts thanks to a new standard granting them an increased role in regulating new foods was counterbalanced by the authority of the European Commission, since it has control over interpreting EU law.