ABSTRACT
COVID-19 is a zoonosis, a disease transmitted by an animal to humans. The diffusion of the outbreak is therefore born of an unsuitable, insufficient, excessively permissive food safety system. Hence, the regulation of food safety plays a central role in the protection of health and has done so on a global scale. The overall regulation of food safety therefore requires an increase in the level of health protection, even at the expense of commercial prerogatives. For these purposes, four reform measures are suggested: to transform the Codex Alimentarius Commission into an organisation that adopts international standards with the sole purpose of protecting health;to apply the precautionary principle on a global scale and in international organisations;to strengthen the mandatory labelling tool;and to create a worldwide system of controls.