The Analysis of Food-Related Health Risks
Maintaining the safety of food requires constant vigilance by government, industry and consumers as the food supply continues to change as a result of new technologies, expanding trade opportunities, ethnic diversity in the population and changing individual diets. The challenge for food regulators is to maintain a food regulatory system that delivers safe food for the population, enables consumers to make informed choices and also maintains public confidence in the food regulations.
The role of FSANZ in the food regulatory system is to develop food standards, and joint codes of practice with industry, covering the composition and labelling of food sold in Australia and New Zealand and Australia-only food standards, including those that address food safety issues and primary production and processing standards. In considering the risks associated with food, FSANZ uses the widely accepted framework of risk analysis. Risk analysis frameworks are a structured way of examining and incorporating the wide variety of factors that impact on a decision-making process, and are widely used in the health sector.
The Analysis of Food-Related Health Risks is intended to provide information on the risk analysis process used by FSANZ to identify, assess and manage food-related health risks within a structured framework. The document is intended to provide a broad overview of the FSANZ process employed in assessing food-related health risks. It is not intended to provide detailed information on the approach used by FSANZ in assessing particular types of foods e.g. food contaminants or substances added to food. Information on these specific areas can be found in other FSANZ additional guidance documents. This document should be read in conjunction with the FSANZ Science Strategy. We hope that you find this document useful in understanding the processes used by FSANZ in considering food-related health risks.
