Procedures are identified detecting and estimating consumer willingness to pay for food safety. Case histories demonstrate the significant behavioral response of consumers to changes in food safety. Concepts and methods for estimating willingness to pay for food safety are reviewed. A framework is developed for estimating the impact of food safety on market prices, market quantities, and consumer and producer welfare. Contrary to theoretical models based on zero transactions costs and fully differentiated markets, the empirical results indicate that the welfare losses of a laissez-faire policy to food safety may exceed the losses of direct regulation.