Practical Approaches to Risk Assessment

Abstract

The aim of microbiological risk assessment is to facilitate decision making at various levels of food safety management. At the personal level, the decision concerns what to eat and what not to eat. Knowledge concerning the potential risks of certain foods and the degree of satisfaction derived from eating a food are important criteria in making the decision. Food suppliers must make the decision for their customers or consumers. They will limit the risk that someone may get ill as much as possible. Hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) is the system of choice to produce or prepare safe food. During the elaboration of an HACCP plan, many decisions must be made, and risk assessment may be a useful tool in this process. Governments should use risk assessment to select risk management measures for both the internal market and the export market because the GATT/SPS agreement stipulates that standards used for food in international trade should be established on scientific principles and risk assessment. A practical approach to the risk assessment of Listeria monocytogenes is given as an example.

Assessed versus Perceived Risks: Innovative Communications in Agri-Food Supply Chains

“…Several tools allow assessment of whether a pathogen may be a source of hazard for a certain food in a specific food process. Differently from semi-quantitative scoring systems and decision trees [ 24 , 25 , 26 ], stepwise approaches [ 27 ], and schemes for qualitative risk assessments [ 28 , 29 ], the Risk Ranger software allows identification of phases where control measures could be effectively implemented. Described in Ross and Sumner [ 30 ], the Risk Ranger software is a calculation tool based on 11 questions that allow attribution of a rank to a specific combination of food and hazard.…”

Listeriosis risk assessment: Simulation modelling and “what if” scenarios applied to consumption of ready-to-eat products in a Spanish population

“…Governments need risk assessment in order to select risk management measures for food trade at national and international levels, avoiding risks to the population (Van Schothorst, 1997). But also, risk assessment can be useful at the production level (how to manufacture), at the supplier level (to deliver or not, storage conditions) and at the personal level (to eat or not to eat, or how to prepare a food).…”

Risk‐Based Approach for Microbiological Food Safety Management in the Dairy Industry: The Case of Listeria monocytogenes in Soft Cheese Made from Pasteurized Milk

“…According to Codex Alimentarius Commission recommendations on food safety and European regulations, management options applied at the process production level should be based on good hygiene practices, HACCP system, and food safety risk management metrics (appropriate level of protection, food safety objective , performance objective, and performance criterion) . To follow this last recommendation, the use of quantitative risk assessment model is an appealing approach to link new risk‐based metrics to management options that may be applied by food operators …”