A recipe for safer food: The theory of change underpinning risk analysis in the context of the Codex Alimentarius

Abstract

Food safety has benefited from systematic approaches to assess and control risks. The paradigm of risk analysis calls for the components of risk assessment and risk management to be bridged and complemented with risk communication, yet still be separate activities. In practical terms, risk assessment and risk management are, in fact, heavily interdependent upon one another. Collectively, risk assessments, risk management and risk communications are tools or processes that deliver specific outputs. For food safety enhancement, these outputs must be translated into outcomes to yield the desired impacts—improved food safety, human health, and livelihoods. The purpose of this paper to illustrate, using the example of listeriosis, how steps in the risk analysis process used by the Codex Alimentarius Commission's, Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH), of the and the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) align with the various components of the theory change, ultimately leading to impacts on food safety, enhanced health and livelihoods on the global scale.