Brussels, Belgium
02/12/2014
ILSI Europe with the support of 7 task forces (namely Emerging Microbiological Issues, Food Allergy, Food Intake Methodology, Novel Foods and Nanotechnology, Process Related Compounds and Natural Toxins, Risk Analysis in Food Microbiology, and Threshold of Toxicological Concern Task Forces) organised a workshop on 'Hazard vs. Risk Based Approaches in Food Safety Assessment'.
PROGRAMME
You will find the programme of the workshop here (latest version: 13 November 2014).
BACKGROUND
The use of hazard- and risk-based approaches in the safety assessment of foods triggers a lot of discussion. In order to bring in more clarity and building on the strong expertise of its public-private scientific network, ILSI Europe together with its 7 task forces would like to proactively tackle this issue in an open workshop. The terms ‘hazard’ and ‘risk’ are often used to mean the same thing in common language. However, there is a clear difference between the two terms when used in chemical, microbiological and allergy safety assessments of foods. Legislation is often built on hazard-based approaches where simply the presence of an agent at any detectable level might be used as the basis for legislation. In contrast, risk-based approaches try to establish acceptable levels of exposure to hazards using evidence-based risk assessment methodologies.
GOAL AND PURPOSE
The purpose of this workshop was to convene experts and to create awareness of hazard and risk-based approaches in food safety assessment. The uniqueness of this workshop was to address in one single event hazard- and risk-based approaches through case studies on chemical, microbiological and allergy safety assessment of foods.
WHO ATTENDED?
The workshop targeted experts and researchers in chemical, microbiological and allergy food safety assessment. Stakeholders included food safety assessors from industry, government and regulatory bodies, academics and NGOs.
PUBLICATION
This workshop resulted in the publication of a scientific article in the peer-reviewed journal Trends in Food Science & Technology. For more, click here.
CONTACT
For more information on this event, please contact Mr Jeroen Schuermans, Scientific Project Manager.
For more information about this workshop, read the press release here.