With regard to this, the role of legal liability in courts is crucial. It may well be that a more appropriate balance and combination of legal liability, penalties and private insurance against food safety combined with public minimum standards may deliver a more efficient market response to the issue of food safety. As a corollary, however, the combination of private food standards, modern production and marketing developments towards more concentration (economies of scale) may well make the system more exclusive uis-a-uis smaller producers in both developed and developing countries.