A scientific article published in Current Opinion in Food Science states that zero risk does not exist in food processes. There will be some residual risk even that that risk may be very small.
The authors state "Consumers, food industries and governments typically desire foods that are ‘free of any risk’. In practise this is not achievable. Microorganisms are present in most environments, including the raw materials required for making food, the tools and machinery used to process that food, and even at the humans that are employed in food processing facilities and other food establishments (e.g. restaurants).......However, it does not matter how stringent these measures are [processes and procedures implemented by food operations], they can never be perfect. Consequently, a residual risk always remains, making zero risk in foods – as in many other aspects of life – unattainable in practice"
Certainly operations strive to minimize risk the best they can, and operations will have varying risk depending on the processes they use and the product they make. "In most food products, the risk per serving is virtually zero, resulting in a very low chance of the individual consumer contracting a disease. However, from a governmental perspective, the (expected) number of cases for products largely consumed can be relatively large, resulting in a relevant risk. Therefore, because zero risk does not exist for food products, the residual risk must be evaluated using the appropriate risk metrics."
All food processes have a residual risk, some are small,some very small and some are extremely small: zero risk does not exist
Marcel H Zwietering1, Alberto Garre1, Martin Wiedmann2and RobertL Buchanan3,4
As risk-based approaches are increasingly recognized and used to manage food safety hazards, their implementation requires a recognition and appreciation of residual risk. We define residual risk as the one that remains even after a fully compliant food safety system has been implemented. As true ‘zero risk’ is essentially unattainable, understanding and assessing the residual risks for different products is essential for the different actors involved in the food production system. Understanding residual risk is particularly critical as improved surveillance systems (e.g. facilitated by whole genome sequencing) can detect small outbreaks and potentially link cases to a product, even when they are consequences of residual risk rather than a non-compliant food safety system. Future work on assessing residual risk for different pathogen-food combinations are essential at both the company and governmental level to further fine tune food safety systems with the definition of an acceptable residual risk.
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