Abstract
The commercial preparation of safe foods is widely considered to be best managed by ‘pre-requisite programs' in combination with the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) strategy. Formal risk assessment approaches have latterly been promoted and developed by national governments and international organisations for the purposes of establishing objective and fair rules for international trade in foods and for setting food safety management priorities and consequent regulatory actions. These initiatives are likely to affect the management of microbial food safety in industry. This chapter briefly describes the principles of and approaches to microbial risk assessment (MRA). The terminology of MRA, and its origins, are described and its application to managing the risk of foodborne pathogens and their toxins, including its integration with HACCP, are considered. It is suggested that the application of the tools and techniques of MRA in the food industry can assist in elucidating optimal food safety control options, identifying CCPs and specifying their limits and appropriate corrective actions. Thus, rather than replacing HACCP, MRA will help to optimise the HACCP systems of the food industry and individual food businesses to improve product safety and overall public health. Additionally, MRA can facilitate innovation in the food industry because it provides an agreed method for demonstration of the food safety equivalence of alternative processing technologies and formulations. Currently MRA is a high-level, resource- and time-intensive activity. Increasingly, the approaches of MRA are being applied to narrower food safety decisions, involving the development of ‘fit-for-purpose’ approaches to MRA. Examples are presented of the use of MRA approaches to support decision making by food businesses.
Published Version
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