Chapter 19 - Microbiological risk assessments in food industry

Abstract

Microbiological risk assessment (MRA) is a structured process for determining the public health risk associated with biological hazards in a food. It includes hazard identification, exposure assessment, hazard characterization, and risk characterization. Based upon MRA, food safety management is shifting from hazard-based to risk-based management. When performing quantitative MRA (QMRA), mathematical models are used to describe the propagation of microorganisms from the raw materials to the consumer’s plate, the consumption pattern, and subsequent illness. Also, in QMRA, both variability and uncertainty inherent to biological data are taken into account through probability distributions. Estimating quantitatively the risk provides the flexibility of comparing the efficiency of different risk-reduction measures, which could be potentially implemented at the operational level, by predicting their effect on the model output. This chapter is focused on the presentation of these concepts, using as much as possible examples of applications in an industrial context.