Correct Answer - Option 1 : Microbiological Risk Assessment
MRA stands for Microbiological Risk Assessment
MRA:
- It Stands for Microbiological risk assessment.
- It is a new tool in managing and controlling microbiological hazards in foods, with the objectives of reducing food-borne disease and facilitating food trade.
The objectives of MRA:
- Raise awareness among policy-makers and risk managers of the principles and procedures for microbiological risk assessment in the context of risk management.
- Explain the concept of microbiological risk assessment.
- Explain the type of data, other resources, and setup required for microbiological risk assessment and factors influencing these.
- Describe the work of the organizations involved in risk assessment at the national or international level, their outputs, and relevant resources material.
The objectives of MRA:
- Raise awareness among policy-makers and risk managers of the principles and procedures for microbiological risk assessment in the context of risk management.
- Explain the concept of microbiological risk assessment.
- Explain the type of data, other resources, and setup required for microbiological risk assessment and factors influencing these.
- Describe the work of the organizations involved in risk assessment at the national or international level, their outputs, and relevant resources material.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MICROBIOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT:
- Microbiological risk assessment should be soundly based on science.
- There should be a functional separation between risk assessment and risk management.
- Microbiological risk assessment should be conducted according to a structured approach that includes hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment, and risk characterization.
- A microbiological risk assessment should clearly state the purpose of the exercise, including the form of risk estimate that will be the output.
- The conduct of a microbiological risk assessment should be transparent.
- Any constraints that impact the risk assessment such as cost, resources, or time, should be identified and their possible consequences described.
- The risk estimate should contain a description of uncertainty and where the uncertainty arose during the risk assessment process.
- Data should be such that uncertainty in the risk estimate can be determined; data and data collection systems should, as far as possible, be of sufficient quality and precision that uncertainty in the risk estimate is minimized.
- A microbiological risk assessment should explicitly consider the dynamics of microbiological growth, survival, and death in foods and the complexity of the interaction (including sequelae) between human and agent following consumption as well as the potential for further spread.
- Wherever possible, risk estimates should be reassessed over time by comparison with independent human illness data.
- A microbiological risk assessment may need reevaluation, as new relevant information becomes available.
