Risk evaluation, risk reduction and risk control

Abstract

Decisions about the management of food chemical hazards are dependent on many factors. Part 2 of this book described how complex scientific and technical factors are brought together in the risk assessment process. The foregoing chapters of Part 3 have shown how additional socio-economic factors such as consumer perceptions and the relative costs associated with different options also have their roles. Risk evaluation is the process whereby all these disparate and sometimes conflicting factors are brought together in an attempt to describe the total problem and to identify an optimal solution. Risk reduction describes the search for strategies which could reduce the level of risk or otherwise change the values of factors in the risk evaluation process, causing the balance to shift and a different outcome to become optimal. Risk control is the introduction of measures which will monitor or limit the levels of risk or other factors in the risk analysis process. Whilst these three activities are described as distinct processes in this chapter, the reader will soon recognize that they are interdependent and together provide the mechanism for assessment, feedback and control in the risk management process.