Recently, a number of initiatives have been launched in the field of food and nutrition to address the
formulation of the benefit–risk assessment approach. BRA has recently been advocated by EFSA for the
public health management of food and food ingredients; as beneficial and adverse chemicals can often
be found within the same foods and even the same ingredients. These recent developments in the scoping
of BRA could be very relevant for food microbiological issues. BRA could become a valuable methodology
to support evaluations and decision making regarding microbiological food safety and public health, supplementing
other presently available policy making and administrative tools for microbiological food
safety management.