Historically food risk assessment has its roots in concerns for
toxic chemicals in food and has been adopted by food microbiology
as a tool for the management of the risks caused by foodborne pathogens.
Microbiological risk assessment (MRA) can be defined as the
scientific evaluation of known or potentially adverse health effects
resulting from human exposure to pathogenic microorganism (Miliotis
et al., 2008). MRA is commonly divided into four separate components:
hazard identification, exposure assessment, hazard
characterization (dose–response assessment) and risk characterization
(Buchanan et al., 2000; Lammerding and Fazil, 2000). A framework
of guidelines and principles for conducting MRA has been
provided by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) (CAC, 1999).