This paper provides a novel methodology to measure the impact of food safety regulation. An output directional distance function approach is applied to estimate the opportunity cost of food safety regulation and the shadow price of food risk. Such measures should be included as part of the overall cost of compliance for a more precise comparison of the benefits and costs of food safety regulation. Further, comparing the implicit shadow price of food risk and willingness to pay for food safety can bridge the gap of understanding how valuable safer foods are from the perspective of two different market participants - consumers and firms respectively.