With respect to food-borne pathogens possibly associated
to particular foods, Risk Analysis is about to be
generally accepted by governments as the framework
to (1) estimate the impact of a particular hazard on public
health, (2) define an appropriate level of public health
protection against that hazard and (3) establish guidelines
to ensure the supply of safe foods (Gorris, 2002).
Public health protection is paramount, but the facilitation
of fair trade is a second important area of application
of Risk Analysis as it is advocated to use the
framework in the development of Codex Alimentarius
Standards, Codes and Guidelines.
The current health status of a population is evaluated
conducting a Microbiological Risk Assessment (MRA)
for a product or product group to which a pathogen is
associated (Buchanan, Smith, & Long, 2000; Lammerding
& Fazil, 2000). An MRA can give an absolute or
a relative indication of the health status, i.e. provide
an absolute numerical expression of the risk at population
level respectively a relative or benchmarked
expressing (e.g. a ranking). Importantly, MRA studies
can be developed on many levels of detail, amongst
many others depending on the complexity of the issue,
the urgency for obtaining the risk estimate and the data
available (van Gerwen & Gorris, 2004). What all MRA
studies should have in common is that they involve all
relevant food products in a country or imported into a
country (Fig. 1). They should keep to the important
basic principles of being structured, systematic, transparent,
and open studies. They also should give detailed
account of all information that is important to understand
the process by which the risk estimate has been
arrived at as well as the content of the study. Thus,
for instance, data considered, data rejected and rationale
for that, models used, assumptions made and opinions
all should be specified. With the risk estimate, an
account of variability and uncertainty should be given.