ABSTRACT
Management .............................................................................. 239 7.4.12 Basis in Science .......................................................................... 240 7.4.13 Uncertainty and Variability..................................................... 241 7.4.14 Peer Review ............................................................................... 241
7.5 Risk Assessment Methodology ........................................................... 241 7.5.1 Risk Assessment for Biological Hazards ............................... 243 7.5.2 Hazard Identication ............................................................... 243 7.5.3 Hazard Characterization ......................................................... 243 7.5.4 Exposure Assessment............................................................... 244 7.5.5 Risk Characterization ............................................................... 244
7.1 Introduction In the last decade of the twentieth century the tragic deaths of four young children during a highly publicized foodborne illness outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in the Pacic Northwest helped to redirect our national food safety initiatives (Woteki 1998). This event, like the impact Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle had on the passage of the Pure Food and Drugs and Meat Inspection Acts in the early twentieth century, brought together government, public health groups, consumers, and industry to make lasting change in our overarching food safety goal of reducing the incidence of foodborne illness. Declaring E. coli O157:H7 as an adulterant in ground beef (regulatory control), requiring “safe handling” labels on packages of raw meat and poultry products (consumer education), as well as mandated Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems for the meat and poultry industries (shared responsibility for safety) were all a direct result of this collective stakeholder response to address root causes attributable to the outbreak (Woteki 1998).
