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Microbial Risk Assessment

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Foodborne Diseases

Abstract

Microbial risk assessment (MRA) is used to evaluate foodborne hazards, the likelihood of exposure to those hazards, and the resulting public-health impact. It is generally recognized to consist of four parts: hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. Model predictions generated by MRAs are most often expressed as the estimated likelihood of foodborne illness and/or number of deaths in a given population for a given period. MRA is used increasingly to inform decision-making aimed both at managing human health risks from foodborne pathogens and at devising standards for promoting safe and fair international food trade. This chapter discusses how MRA fits into the larger context of risk analysis, describes in detail the process of MRA, reviews examples of recently completed MRAs, and suggests steps towards further improvement of the MRA process.

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© 2007 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

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Schroeder, C.M., Jensen, E., Miliotis, M.D., Dennis, S.B., Morgan, K.M. (2007). Microbial Risk Assessment. In: Simjee, S. (eds) Foodborne Diseases. Infectious Disease. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-501-5_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-501-5_18

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-518-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-501-5

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