Study identifies key topics for future work in food safety
A study commissioned by EFSA to prioritise future work in the area of food safety has identified 28 key topics. The results of this study will guide collaboration between EFSA and EU Member States and contribute to the development of a common risk assessmentA specialised field of applied science that involves reviewing scientific data and studies in order to evaluate risks associated with certain hazards. It involves four steps: hazard identification, hazard characterisation, exposure assessment and risk characterisation agenda.
The study used the Delphi methodology with a three-round iterative survey. It involved more than 200 scientists and experts from a wide range of fields related to risk assessment in the area of food safety.
The experts were asked to identify and rate food safety priorities according to certain criteria such as their potential for saving resources, their added value to support risk assessment activities and their potential to improve harmonisation of risk assessment.
The 28 topics are grouped in five categories: chemical, microbiological and environmental risk assessmentThe process of assessing potential harm to the environment caused by a substance, activity or natural occurrence. This may include the introduction of GM plants, the use of pesticides, or the spread of plant pests, nutritionThe science of how diet relates to the body's need for sustenance and a generic category of cross-cutting issues. Using an aggregate rating measure, two topics in each category were identified as top-rated. These include: common data collection across Europe, risk assessment of aggregated exposureConcentration or amount of a particular substance that is taken in by an individual, population or ecosystem in a specific frequency over a certain amount of time, antimicrobial resistanceThe ability of microorganisms (such as bacteria, viruses, fungi) to survive exposure to antimicrobials. This phenomenon, driven largely by the overuse and misuse of antimicrobial agents (e.g. antibiotics, fungicides used as plant protection agents, etc), makes infections harder to treat and poses a significant threat to public health., zoonoses, environmental contaminants in food, and the development of standard risk-benefit assessment methods of foods.
Final report on ‘the identification of food safety priorities using the Delphi technique’
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