With the consumer interest in food safety rising, the Korean government is strengthening its efforts to manage food safety. However, the frequent debate about improving the food safety system is largely concentrated on the role of central administrative agencies despite the importance of the role of local governments. The purpose of this study is to analyze the food safety control status of the central and local governments from a legal standpoint. The results show that the central government is mostly given the power of policy and regulation making and local governments share the power of policy and regulation implementation with the central government. Local governments are not given much power in risk communication for food safety.