Risk assessment of foodborne infections

The microbiological risk assessment during production, processing and treatment of foods illustrates an important basis for the judgement of the safety of food products. Since the mid-nineties the concept of risk analysis according to Codex Alimentarius requirements ist pursued more intensely. Risk assessment is part of the risk analysis process besides risk management and risk communication. A strict separation between risk management and assessment should lead to a systematic, scientifically based and independent process without considering economic or political constraints whereas the decision on protective measures or the acceptance of risks lies in the responsibility of the managers. Risk assessment can only be successfully implemented in an interdisciplinary approach between physicians, veterinarians, microbiologists, molecularbiologists, food technologists, epidemiologists and mathematicians. Surveillance, monitoring programs and other data collections on a variety of parameters like statistics on foodborne human cases, the prevalence of zoonotic agents in animals, the distribution of micro-organisms in the environment and in foods, the behaviour of micro-organisms during food processing and the consumption habits of consumers deliver the necessary data for risk assessors. With the aim of mathematic modelling and simulation it is possible to calculate the probability of health problems in humans after the consumption of a foodstuff contaminated with a specific pathogenic micro-organism.