FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE: RISK ANALYSIS
Diagram
Two halves of risk analysis
Risk assessment
The science: what is the hazard, how much exposure do people get, what dose causes harm, and what is the overall risk.
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Risk management
The decision: set a limit, ban a substance, order a recall, change a process, or require a label.
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Risk communication
The third part: telling the people affected what the risk is, what is being done, and what they can do themselves.
Figure 1: Risk assessment estimates the risk; risk management decides what to do about it. Drawn in our own style from the FTN Food Safety and Security notes, Unit 1, and from Foodborne Infections and Intoxications, page 31.
Introduction
Risk assessment and risk management are the two halves of risk analysis, and both are steps in food safety decision making, but they answer different questions. Risk assessment is the science of estimating risk: what is the hazard, how much exposure do people get, and what dose causes harm. Risk management is choosing what to do about it: setting a limit, banning a substance, ordering a recall, changing a process, or requiring a label. Assessment supplies the science, and management weighs it and chooses the action.
The FTN Food Safety and Security notes, Unit 1, give the four questions of assessment and the decisions of management, and Foodborne Infections and Intoxications, page 31, defines risk analysis as three components, with the four steps of assessment. This article follows those two sources.
Quick comparison
Table 1: Risk assessment compared with risk management
| Aspect | Risk assessment | Risk management |
|---|---|---|
| Question | What is the risk | What should be done about the risk |
| Work | Science work: laboratory tests, surveys of what people eat, and studies of outbreaks | Decision work: weighing the science against what is practical, what it costs, and what other risks the decision might create |
| Steps | Four steps in order: hazard identification, hazard characterisation, exposure assessment, and risk characterisation | Choosing the action: set a limit, ban a substance, order a recall, change a process, or require a label |
| First step | What is the hazard, and what harm can it do | Taking the assessment and deciding what to do |
| Exposure | How much exposure do people get, and from which foods | Not measured here: the assessment supplies the exposure, and management acts on it |
| Dose and response | What is the link between dose and response: how does the amount change the harm | Setting a limit that can be measured and enforced: a limit no laboratory can measure cannot be enforced |
| Output | An estimate of the overall risk, given the hazard, the exposure and the dose response | A decision: keep selling, set a limit, withdraw the batch, or require a change |
| Who does it | Scientists, laboratories and survey teams | Managers, regulators and businesses, with the science in front of them |
| Example | A laboratory study that measures how many germs grow in milk at room temperature feeds a risk assessment | Withdrawing a batch of flour after an assessment shows a hazard is risk management |
| Third part | Risk assessment is one of three parts of risk analysis, with risk management and risk communication | Risk management is one of the same three parts |
Scientific explanation
Definition
Risk assessment is the science part of risk analysis: finding the hazard, measuring exposure, and linking dose to response. It asks four questions in order: what is the hazard, and what harm can it do; how much exposure do people get, and from which foods; what is the link between dose and response, meaning how does the amount change the harm; and what is the overall risk, given the hazard, the exposure and the dose response. Risk management is the decision part of risk analysis: taking the assessment and deciding what to do, by setting a limit, banning a substance, ordering a recall, changing a process, or requiring a label.
Working principle
Risk analysis is a process consisting of three components: risk assessment, risk management and risk communication. Risk assessment is a scientifically based process consisting of four steps: hazard identification, hazard characterisation, exposure assessment, and risk characterisation. Hazard identification is the identification of biological, chemical and physical agents capable of causing adverse health effects and which may be present in a particular food or group of foods. Exposure assessment is the qualitative or quantitative evaluation of the likely intake of those agents through food. Risk management takes the assessment and decides what to do, and it weighs the science against what is practical, what it costs, and what other risks the decision might create. Setting a limit of zero sounds safest, but a limit that no laboratory can measure cannot be enforced. Risk communication is the third part: telling the people affected what the risk is, what is being done, and what they can do themselves. Good communication is plain, honest about what is known and unknown, and given early, before rumour fills the gap.
Apparatus
The books used here name no laboratory apparatus for telling the two apart, so no apparatus list is given.
Measurement procedure
Risk assessment is measured by its inputs: laboratory tests, surveys of what people eat, and studies of outbreaks. Risk management is measured by its actions: the limit set, the ban, the recall, the process change, or the label required, and whether the action can be enforced and checked. The books used here name no single standard procedure for either one, so no procedure is invented here.
Factors affecting readings
For assessment, the hazard, the exposure and the dose response decide the estimate: a hazard that is common, an exposure that is high, and a dose that causes harm at low amounts all raise the risk. For management, practicality, cost and other risks decide the choice: a limit must be measurable, a recall must be possible, and a decision that creates a new risk elsewhere must be weighed. For both, communication decides whether the public acts well: poor communication can cause more harm than the hazard itself, when people stop eating safe food or keep eating unsafe food because the message was unclear.
Formulas and calculations
The books used here give no formula for this comparison, so no formula or worked calculation is given.
Industrial applications
- Risk assessment: a laboratory study that measures how many germs grow in milk at room temperature.
- Risk assessment: surveys of what people eat, and studies of outbreaks, feeding the exposure and dose response steps.
- Risk assessment: hazard identification for a HACCP plan, deciding which hazards are significant for food safety.
- Risk management: setting a limit for a substance in food, at a level a laboratory can measure.
- Risk management: ordering a recall, or withdrawing a batch of flour after an assessment shows a hazard.
- Risk management: requiring a label, banning a substance, or changing a process.
Advantages and limitations
- Risk assessment, advantage: it gives a science-based estimate of the risk, from hazard, exposure and dose response, instead of a guess.
- Risk assessment, limitation: it estimates, it does not decide, and it needs laboratory tests, surveys and outbreak studies to work.
- Risk management, advantage: it turns the science into action, with limits, bans, recalls, process changes and labels.
- Risk management, limitation: it must weigh practicality, cost and other risks, and a limit no laboratory can measure cannot be enforced.
FAQ
What is the main difference between risk assessment and risk management?
Risk assessment is the science of estimating risk: hazard, exposure and dose response. Risk management is deciding what to do about it: limits, bans, recalls, process changes or labels.
What are the four steps of risk assessment?
Hazard identification, hazard characterisation, exposure assessment, and risk characterisation, in that order.
Who decides, assessment or management?
Risk management decides. Assessment supplies the science on the hazard and the exposure, and management weighs it and chooses the action.
What is risk communication?
The third part of risk analysis: telling the people affected what the risk is, what is being done, and what they can do themselves, plainly and early.
Why can a limit of zero be a bad decision?
Because a limit that no laboratory can measure cannot be enforced, so it sounds safest but cannot be checked.
References and further reading
- FTN subject: Food Safety and Security, Unit 1: What Food Safety Means, Hazards and Risk.
- Foodborne Infections and Intoxications, Elsevier, 2011 (Google Books page read)
