Multifactorial Assessment of Microbial Risks in Foods: Merging Engineering, Science, and Social Dimensions

Abstract

To lower the incidence of human food-borne disease, experts and stakeholders have urged the development of a science- and risk-based management system in which food-borne hazards are analyzed and prioritized. To date, most approaches are based on measures of health outcomes and account for other risk factors in ad hoc ways. We have developed a framework that is based on the systematic organization and analysis of four major risk factors: public health outcomes, consumer perceptions and acceptance of risk, market-level impacts, and social values. Our approach is illustrated using six case studies based on Canadian data. Information in the multifactorial framework is analyzed at the level of pathogen–food combinations. Each pathogen–food pair has a set of information cards that summarize risk measures for the four major factors as well as a summary card. Formal multi-criteria decision analysis is used to produce ranked lists of microbial risks in foods. We compare two outranking methods (ELECTRE III and PROMETHEE) using risk measures for the six case studies. The framework has been developed by a multidisciplinary research team. We conclude with some reflection on the value of incorporating multidisciplinary experiences in the training of food engineers.