PrioR: a food safety management aid
Prioritising biological and chemical risks to food safety
In 2020, ANSES developed a prioritisation methodology that was tested on a limited number of hazards and ‘food-hazard’ pairs. The PrioR ranking tool complements and refines this methodology, which can now be applied to the main food-related hazards in mainland France and Corsica.
PrioR now includes 111 chemical and 22 biological hazards. Chemical hazards include, for example, persistent organic pollutants, trace metals and mycotoxins. Biological hazards include bacteria and the toxins they produce, in addition to viruses and parasites.
These hazards were selected on the basis of their relevance in the French context and of the occurrence of adverse effects due to food consumption, and finally the availability of data to be able to assess their level of risk.
The tool was developed following extensive data collection and analysis, with the aim of identifying criteria for ranking hazards and food-hazard pairs based on two aspects:
- The estimated occurrence according to the type of hazard based on the annual incidence of diseases or the proportion of people exposed to the chemical contaminant through food (data from total diet studies or other available data).
- Severity assessed according to the nature of the effects caused (mortality, morbidity, endocrine disruption, carcinogenicity, neurotoxicity, etc.).
A first application in the beef industry
ANSES first applied PrioR to the beef sector, focusing on relevant food-hazard pairs, such as Escherichia coli in minced meat and dioxins in liver.
The tool identified and classified the main hazards for different types of beef (e.g. liver, rib steak, minced meat, tartare, etc.). Ninety-eight biological food-hazard pairs and 532 chemical food-hazard pairs were ranked.
Prioritisation depending on the choices made by public authorities
PrioR requires the user to make choices to define the relative importance given to each criterion (occurrence, severity). For public authorities, these choices reflect their risk management objectives.
The following results serve as examples. For biological hazards, Campylobacter, Salmonella, noroviruses and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) rank highest when both occurrence and severity are given equal weight. For chemical hazards, acrylamide, inorganic arsenic and chromium IV stand out as the most significant, regardless of the relative importance given to occurrence and severity.
For food-hazard pairs in the beef sector, regardless of the relative importance of the criteria, STEC and salmonella are the main hazards associated with the consumption of minced meat, including when it is intended to be eaten cooked. Similarly, dioxins associated with meat products rank highest in all cases.
Extending application to all agri-food sectors
PrioR ultimately aims to classify all food-hazard pairs using a multi-sector approach. Similar work has already been carried out for raw-milk cheeses and is currently ongoing for other agri-food sectors.
The data on which PrioR is based will be regularly updated to take account of new knowledge, changes in consumption patterns and regulatory changes. These developments may lead to a review of the selection of hazards and food-hazard pairs considered.
These data are available to everyone, including professionals and the scientific community. They will be used by the public authorities in developing monitoring and control plans, and by agri-food professionals for their hazard analysis. PrioR will also be implemented as part of ANSES's expert appraisals on food-related hazards, which will help to strengthen consumer health safety.