Over the past years benefit–risk analysis (BRA) in relation to foods and food ingredients has gained much
attention; in Europe and worldwide. BRA relating to food microbiology is however a relatively new field
of research. Microbiological risk assessment is well defined but assessment of microbial benefits and the
weighing of benefits and risk has not been systematically addressed. In this paper the state of the art in
benefit–risk analysis in food microbiology is presented, with a brief overview of microbiological food
safety practices