Risk Characterization Of Microbiological Hazards In Food Guidelines

It is in the risk characterization step that the results of the risk assessment are presented.

Contains information that is useful to both risk assessors and risk managers, including international scientific committees, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, governments, and food regulatory agencies, scientists, food producers and industries and other people or institutions with an interest in microbiological hazards in foods, their impact on public health and food trade and their control.

Risk characterization is one of the four steps of microbiological risk assessment, which include hazard identification, exposure assessment, hazard characterization and risk characterization. Risk characterization is defined as an estimation of the probability of occurrence and severity of known or potential adverse health effects in a population based on hazard identification, hazard characterization and exposure assessment. It is in the risk characterization step that the results of the risk assessment are presented. These results are provided in the form of risk estimates and risk descriptions that present answers to the questions risk managers pose to risk assessors. These answers, in turn provide the best available science-based evidence to be used by risk managers to assist them in managing food safety. This volume presents guidelines for risk characterization of microbiological hazards in foods. These guidelines provide descriptive guidance on how to conduct risk characterizations in various contexts, and utilizing a variety of tools and techniques. They have been developed in recognition of the fact that reliable estimation of risk is critical to the overall risk assessment. This volume and others in the Microbiological Risk Assessment Seriescontain information that is useful to both risk assessors and risk managers, including international scientific committees, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, governments and food regulatory agencies, scientists, food producers and industries and other people or institutions with an interest in the area of microbiological hazards in foods, their impact on human health and food trade and their control.

The guidelines aim to provide a practical framework and approach for undertaking exposure assessment of microbiological hazards (bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoa and microbial toxins) in foods in the context of a risk assessment or as a stand-alone process.

This document provides guidance on undertaking risk assessment of all microbial hazards which may adversely affect human health in foods along a food chain. This document is also intended to provide practical guidance on a structured framework for carrying out risk assessment of microbiological hazards in foods, focussing on the four components including hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment and risk characterization. These guidelines therefore represent the best practice at the time of their preparation, and it is hoped that they will help stimulate further developments and disseminate the current knowledge.

Risk assessment has been extensively developed in several scientific fields, such as environmental science, economics, and civil engineering, among others. In the aftermath of the SPS and GATT agreements on the use of risk analysis framework in food trade, signed in the 1990s, international organisations and governments adopted risk assessment as a science-based process to ensure food safety along the food chain. The food industry can also benefit from the use of this approach for food process optimisation and quality assurance. Risk Assessment Methods for Biological and Chemical Hazards in Food introduces the reader to quantitative risk assessment methods encompassing general concepts to specific applications to biological and chemical hazards in foods. In the first section, the book presents food risk assessment as methodology and addresses, more specifically, new trends and approaches such as the development of risk rating methods, risk metrics, risk-benefit assessment studies and quality assessment methods. Section II is dedicated to biological hazards. This section identifies the most relevant biological hazards along the food chain and provides an overview on the types of predictive microbiology models used to describe the microbial response along the food chain. Chapter 12 specifically deals with cross contamination and the quantitative methods that can be applied to describe this relevant microbial process. The development and application of dose-response models (i.e. mathematical function describing the relationship between pathogen dose and health response) are also covered in this section. In Section III, the book translates risk assessment concepts into the area of chemical hazards, defining the process steps to determine chemical risk and describing the uncertainty and variability sources associated with chemicals. Key Features: Presents new trends and approaches in the field of risk assessment in foods Risk assessment concepts are illustrated by practical examples in the food sector Discusses how quantitative information and models are integrated in a quantitative risk asssment framework Provides examples of applications of quantitative chemical risk assessment in risk management The book, written by renowned experts in their field, is a comprehensive collection of quantitative methods and approaches applied to risk assessment in foods. It can be used as an extensive guide for food safety practitioners and researchers to perform quantitative risk assessment in foods

The chilling and freezing of meat remains an essential way of extending shelf-life and maintaining quality. Based on the work of the internationally-renowned Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Centre (FRPERC), Meat refrigeration provides an authoritative guide both to the impact of refrigeration on meat and best practice in using it to maximise meat quality for the consumer. Part one considers the impact of refrigeration on meat quality. There are chapters on the microbiology of refrigerated meat and its influence on shelf-life, drip production, weight loss and the effect of refrigeration on colour and texture. Part two looks at best practice in managing the cold chain from carcass to consumer. The authors discuss primary chilling, freezing, thawing and tempering, transport, storage, retail display and consumer handing. Part three of the book looks at aspects of process control, including chapters on such issues as temperature measurement, the design and optimal use of refrigeration systems. Both authoritative and practical, Meat refrigeration is a standard work for all those wishing to maximise the quality of refrigerated meat. The standard work on meat refrigerationCovers both individual quality issues and the management of the cold chain from carcass to consumer.

The Microbiological Risk Assessment of Food follows on from the author's successful book The Microbiology of Safe Food and provides a detailed analysis of the subject area including cutting-edge information on: foodborne pathogens in world trade; food safety, control and HACCP; risk analysis; the application of microbiological risk assessment (MRA) and likely future developments in the techniques and applications of MRA. This important book focuses on what is an acceptable level of risk to consumers associated with eating food, on a daily basis, which does contain bacteria. An extremely important addition to the available literature, providing a thorough synthesis that will be an essential purchase for all those involved with issues relating to safe food. Copies of the book should be available to practitioners in food companies and academia, including food microbiologists, food scientists and technologists, to consultants and to all those studying or teaching food microbiology. Personnel in government regulatory and public and environmental health capacities will find much of use within the covers of this book. Copies of the book should also be available in the libraries of all research establishments and university departments where food science, food technology and microbiology are studied and taught. Stephen J. Forsythe is Reader in Microbiology at the Department of Life Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, UK. Cover Photograph: Lactobacillus case Shirota by kind permission and courtesy of Yakult UK Ltd.