The tool, a Microbial Risk Assessment (MRA) Guideline, was jointly developed with EPA as a public health collaborative project.
"This new tool will help public health scientists target pathogen-related risks and prevent them from harming the public," USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Elisabeth Hagen said. "We will continue to enhance the tools at our disposal to keep pace with evolving pathogens in our environment with the ultimate goal of protecting the American public and the food supply."
"This project contributes significantly to improving the quality and consistency in the way that participating federal agencies conduct microbial risk assessments, and provides greater transparency to stakeholders and other interested parties in how these agencies approach and conduct their microbial risk assessments," said EPA Science Advisor Dr. Glenn Paulson. "Based on the success of this project, we are seeking further opportunities to combine our technical expertise in our continuing efforts to protect the public's health."
Pathogens in food, water, and the environment can result in acute gastrointestinal-related illnesses and some can have long-term and permanent health effects as well as fatalities. In addition, the source of pathogens is the same for water and food. Recognizing this, the MRA Guideline lays out an overarching approach for conducting meaningful assessments of the risks to consumers posed by pathogen exposure. MRA procedures discussed in the document follow a user-friendly, question-and-answer format that assists risk assessors in developing microbial risk assessments to meet agency-specific needs.
Formal risk assessments for food-, water-, and environmentally-relevant chemicals have been undertaken for decades; however, an overarching microbial risk assessment guideline has not been available until now. The document announced today meets this need by providing comprehensive, specific and descriptive information for developing assessments of microbial risk in food and water.
