Risk Analysis

The Scientific Committee of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) developed guidance for performing risk-benefit assessments of food. A stepwise approach is recommended for the risk-benefit assessment, i) initial assessment, addressing the question whether the health risks clearly outweigh the health benefits or vice versa, ii) refined assessment, aiming at providing semi-quantitative or quantitative estimates of risks and benefits at relevant exposure by using common metrics, and iii) comparison of risks and benefits using a composite metric such as DALYs or QALYs to express the outcome of the risk-benefit assessment as a single net health impact value.

After each step of the risk-benefit assessment, discussion and close collaboration should take place between the risk-benefit assessor and the risk-benefit manager on whether sufficient information has been provided or whether the terms of reference should be refined in order to proceed with the next step of the assessment. Two examples (selenium as an indispensable nutrient, and fish consumption) illustrate the proposed approach.

Guidance on risk-benefit assessment of foods

After the publication of the “Guidance on human health risk-benefit assessment of foods”, in line with EFSA’s policy on openness and transparency and in order for EFSA to receive comments from the scientific community and stakeholders on its work, EFSA engages in a public consultation on the mentioned guidance, receiving 280 submissions from 19 interested parties (non-governmental organisations, industry organizations and national assessment bodies), which are compiled in the attached document.

Public consultation results on the guidance

The Assessment Methodology Unit of EFSA has developed a guidance to assess the available systematic review methods for the systematic evaluation of food and feed safety research, and to evaluate their potential use when doing risk assessments to support decision making in food and feed safety. The Guidance provides suggestions and examples to the Risk Managers for the conduct of eight key steps in the systematic review process to answer questions generated by the risk assessment process or deal with broad food and feed safety policy problems.

Assessment methodology for decision making

This guide, issued by the WHO, presents guidelines for risk characterization of microbiological hazards in foods. These guidelines provide descriptive guidance on how to conduct risk characterization in various contexts, and utilizing a variety of tools and techniques. They have been developed in recognition of the fact that a reliable estimation of risk is critical to the overall risk assessment.

OMS guide

Mercasa has published the Guide "Alimentación en España, 2009" where production and consumption data from differents sectors and Autonomous Communities are offered.

Full Guide

The present review has examined New Zealand Food Standard Agency´s (NZFSA) recently updated Risk Management Framework and how it has been applied in some recent high-profile food safety issues in New Zealand. This Risk Management Framework has also been compared with international guidelines on best practice and the food safety systems used in Denmark, Ireland and Sweden.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has developed the Concise database gathering data on average daily consumption of foods per person sourced from the Member States. The intention of the concise database is to provide a valuable first screening tool to EFSA, its Scientific Panels, and potentially to other scientists in Member States, to help carry out preliminary exposure assessments.

Data-Base