Читать книгу Microbiological Risk Assessment Associated with the Food Processing and Distribution Chain - Jeanne-Marie Membre - Страница 16

Confronted by these dangers for more than 20 years, the development of food safety standards has been based on a formal process called “risk analysis”. Risk analysis includes risk assessment and risk management as well as risk communication (Figure I.2). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and WHO define risk assessment as a decision-making tool: its aim is not necessarily to extend scientific knowledge, but to provide risk managers with a rational and objective picture of what is known, or assumed to be known, about public health risks and their causes at any given time.

Figure I.2. The three components of risk analysis: risk assessment, risk management and risk communication. Adapted from the FAO and WHO (2006)

No matter what the institutional context, the discipline of risk analysis offers a tool that all public authorities can use to improve food safety (FAO and WHO 2020).

This book focuses on risk assessment and more specifically on microbiological risk assessment. Readers interested in chemical risk assessment can refer to a number of books and in particular to the recent book coordinated by Camel et al. (2018).