ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the different classifications of sensitivity analysis (SA) methods described in the general literature with further focus on those most widely used in food risk assessment. It also presents a general review of the main SA methods applied to the context of Quantitative Microbiological Risk Assessment (QMRA), describing typologies and classifications and showing the main characteristics, drawbacks and strengths of the selected methods. In addition, specific examples are presented illustrating the use of the different SA methods addressed herein. The chapter illustrates those practices appraised to be relevant and applicable to QMRA studies. Considering the structure of the model, we have subcategorized some of the most relevant methods into two groups: model independent methods and model dependent methods. Mathematical methods are suitable tools to perform SA for deterministic models; therefore, they are also called deterministic methods.
