The growing attention placed on food safety as a public concern relates to a background of food safety issues that arise one after another. Besides, with the passage of food safty issues along the worldwide food trade and food production chain, food safety has inevitably become a global issue. Therefore, a joint effort is required in order to ensure food safety regulation. In this case, the priority is evidently to formulate a unified definition of food safety since it is forms the foundation for further harmonization in the food domain. To this end, it should be noted that on the one hand, the food safety issues are quite negative as regards consumer confidence in the food industry and food regulatory agencies; nevertheless, on the other hand, it can still help us to understand how the appreciation of food safety develops and how the corresponding food safety legislation is drafted. This paper therefore aims to first explain how the evolution of food safety issues gives rise to a changing appreciation of food safety and then points out its valuable significance to the common appreciation, legal requirements and regulatory approaches towards food safety.