Good performances of food companies depend more and more on the organizational ability of the whole sector to promote common strategies. At the EU level national food sectors are oriented on the same strategic direction by common legislative acts. A new ex-ante regulations' impacts assessment methodology is proposed as part of a decision support system for the policy maker in charge of the sector strategic thinking. The impact assessment system is based on a qualitative approach to rapidly react to markets' dynamism and concerns several domains of impact in economical, social and environmental fields.