ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the basic problem of understanding that exists between public health experts and the public, as affected by risk assessment, and suggest in general terms some things that could be done to address it. Food safety regulation is one of democracy's great challenges. Food safety regulation is such a challenge for democracy because there is such a large gap between the simplicity of the public's fundamental desires and understanding of the problem and the complexity of the way experts perceive and deal with food safety questions. The emergence of quantitative risk assessment as an accepted analytical tool for estimating potential human cancer risks has only increased the experts' tendency to think in terms of risk. Science, food safety regulation, and democracy are inherently messy affairs. Careful scientific and public health officials do not expect or demand from a body of data more than it is capable of delivering.
