Ranking the microbiological safety of foods: A new tool and its application to composite products

Abstract

International audience ; A methodology based on the combination of two complementary approaches to rank microbiological risks in foods is presented. In the forward approach data on the pathogenicity of hazards and their behaviour in food during processing and following steps, up to consumption, are used in decision trees to qualitatively estimate the risk associated with foods. In the backward approach risks are evaluated based on the analysis of data available on the past occurrence of hazards and food-borne outbreaks. The categorisation of foods using the forward approach should prevail, and whenever it leads to a likely risk for a given food, the risk can be further qualified with the results from the backward approach. The methodology developed was applied to rank the public health risk posed by certain composite products, which contain both processed products of animal origin and products of plant origin (e.g., bread, cakes, chocolate). Despite limitations in the data available for these foods, valuable results were obtained. The method is therefore considered suitable for application with success to other types of food, and is proposed as a tool for risk managers to rank foods based on their potential food safety risks. Introduction In the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures it is stated that sanitary measures should be based on an assessment of the risks to humans, taking into account risk assessment techniques. In the European Union (EU), the general principles governing food and feed safety are laid down in Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 (General