Social Network Analysis for Food and Feed security: the European Union case

This paper reports a quantitative and structural analysis of data gathered from the food and feed issues reported by the European Union during the last forty years. This study includes the use of statistical measures and social network analysis techniques. For that purpose, a graph has been constructed considering how the different contaminated products have been distributed alongside countries. This work aims to leverage insights into the structure formed by the involvement of the European countries in the exchange of goods that can cause problems to the population. Results obtained show the roles of the different countries in the detection of sensitive routes. In particular, the analysis shows that there are problematic origin countries, like China or Turkey, whereas European countries, in general, do have good border control policies for the import/export of food and feed.