Keynote Talk: The Use of Microbiological Risk Assessment to Reduce Foodborne Disease Risk

Science-based decisions about policies aimed at preventing foodborne contamination and illness have become very important in general, recently primarily based on the principles of Risk analysis. Risk analysis is a concept and framework fostered by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in the mid-nineties, to ensure that regulatory decisions about foods are science-based and transparent. Risk analysis comprises Risk assessment, Risk management and Risk communication.

Over the last decades emerging pathogens have caused new and increasing problems all over the world. Examples of these pathogens are Salmonella, Campylobacter, Yersinia, Enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) and Listeria monocytogenes. The international trade agreements: World Trade Organization (WTO) SPS agreement (Article 2) establishes that sanitary measures should be based on scientific principles. Risk analysis should be used to enhance protection of human health and minimize the incidence of food-borne disease through establishing realistic and achievable levels of control of food-borne hazards, and basing food safety policies on the practical application of the results of Risk assessment and Risk management.

While risk assessment of chemical food safety hazards has been performed internationally for more than 50 years, microbiological risk assessment is a relatively new scientific discipline. It is important for everyone involved in this area to understand the general principles behind these assessments as well as the potential benefits and uncertainties related to the models used and the estimates arrived at using microbiological risk assessment. This presentation will describe examples of quantitative microbiological risk assessment (MRA), a tool containing food chain models (‘farm-to-fork’) combined with dose-response evaluations, finally resulting in outcome risk estimates in the final Risk Characterization of MRA