In the agri-food sector, quality and food safety concerns receive increased attention and have been the focus of initiatives on various levels of activity, reaching from enterprises to the sector as a whole on regional, national and international levels. The initiatives have to integrate the business management approach of 'quality management' (QM) with the interests of society and consumers in food safety and trustworthy safety guarantees. This paper builds on enterprise level quality management concepts, integrates food safety concerns and develops a framework for a sector-encompassing system for quality and food safety assurance. It relates the framework to present sector initiatives and develops recommendations for the design and implementation of a consistent sector assurance system.