The standards "on" or "of" something?

Question

When "standard" means the level of quality of something, it can be followed by "of", "for" or "on".

I understand that "a standard for something" emphasizes the purposefulness of the standard, and it usually means someone is making the standard "for" someone else, whereas "a standard of something" means an acceptable quality of something.

What I have trouble with is distinguishing between "standards of" and "standards on".

In a news article from the Guardian, both usages can be found: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/08/uk-could-put-tariffs-on-food-from-countries-with-lower-standards

"We put in our manifesto our commitment to our standards of food safety and food security, animal welfare and the environment."

"For a country such as the UK to insist on being able to maintain its own high standards on environmental protections would be legal under WTO rules."

Are these two usages interchangeable, or are there any nuances that I am missing?

Answer 1

"Of" is very direct, and refers simply to standards pertaining to the subject. A "standard of food safety" could be regarded as a single noun.

"On" is more abstract, and could be understood more by considering that it could be replaced by such term as "with regards to [the subject of]".

Answer 2

"Standards for" denotes who should follow the standards. "We have high standards for our food preparation staff."

"Standards of" denotes the metric which the standard specified. "We have high standards of food safety." The thing the standards measure is the food safety. (You could also use "for" in this context)

"Standards on" denotes the topic of the standard. "We have high standards on food handling". Food handling is the general subject we are talking about, but not a specific thing you can measure. (You could also use "for" in this context)

Answer 3

"We put in our manifesto our commitment to our standards of food safety and food security, animal welfare and the environment."

Can also be: "We put in our manifesto our commitment to our food safety standards and food security, animal welfare and the environment."

"For a country such as the UK to insist on being able to maintain its own high standards on environmental protections would be legal under WTO rules."

Can also be: "For a country such as the UK to insist on being able to maintain its own high environmental protection standards would be legal under WTO rules."

BUT: standards can be, depending on context, of, for or on.