Safety and Risk Mitigation Risk Assessment in Dairy Processing - Importance of Food Safety in the Dairy Processing Sector

Over the past two decades, the process of risk assessment has evolved into a systematic and objective approach for evaluating the risks associated with foodborne hazards. By utilizing this structured approach to assess the likelihood and consequence of exposure to hazards, risk assessments have supported comprehensive evaluations of the efficacy of food control systems and advanced procedures for improving food safety. Risk assessment is the science-based component of risk analysis, comprising four key steps: hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. While it is a resource and data intensive endeavor, it can objectively identify and describe the risks posed by foodborne hazards, including pathogens, chemical contaminants, food additives, physical hazards, and allergens. The outputs of a risk assessment can then be used to support the development of risk mitigation strategies, including the development of stringent standards for food, labeling to inform susceptible sub-populations, or banning an additive or food containing certain contaminants. While risk assessment has been widely used by standard setting agencies to establish microbiological criteria and set maximum limits for contaminants and additives, it can also be used by dairy manufacturers to better understand the significance of hazards along their supply chains, and to assess the effectiveness of intervention strategies designed to manage the risk.