Risk Management of game: from theory to practice

Abstract

Risk Management is an integral part of Risk Analysis. It cannot be conducted in isolation from Risk Assessment and Risk Communication. Although it is generally assumed that formal Risk Management is carried out by government officials, in reality this need not be the case – risk can be managed within the industry as long as the process is functionally separated from Risk Assessment. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have jointly produced the Food Safety Risk Analysis ‘A guide for national authorities’ (FAO/WHO, 2006), which provides a generic approach to Risk Management and is essential reading for risk managers. Responsibility for Risk Management lies with everyone in the food chain – in the case of game meat – ‘from forest to fork’. This can include environmentalists, conservationists, hunters, food producers and processors, transporters, retailers, consumers and officials. Live animals and game meat may carry a great variety of biological, chemical and physical contaminants. These need to be judged in the context of their significance and the risks they pose to those handling or consuming game meat. At each stage of game meat production, every day, risks are managed by food producers and official controllers fulfilling their legal obligations. There is no prescribed rule as to when there is a need for formal Risk Management. Each case is different. Thus formal risk analysis may be required to deal with an actual or perceived risk to consumers when, for example, new emerging risks arise, or the evidence suggests that the current control measures are either ineffective or not cost-effective. Risk managers face many challenges during this process, of which perhaps the most difficult is ‘to translate’ and ‘define’ food safety issues in easily understood language and to provide evidence based answers from which effective, yet environmentally sustainable and proportionate measures can be developed.