FSA News Item, 12 December 2012
A copy of the report is available on this site. See: Heads of National Food Agencies Working Group on Transparent Use of Risk Assessment in Decision Making
Final report to the Heads of Agencies
A Working Group of the network of Heads of National Food Agencies in Europe has published a report on the Transparent Use of Risk Assessment in Decision Making.
The Working Group looked at how to ensure that the established principles for risk assessment and for risk policy are used consistently and transparently in risk management decisions that affect food safety in the EU. It concluded that a principal challenge is for risk management to develop and promote transparency and rigour in the decision-making process comparable to that in the risk assessment process, so that the basis for risk management and the information and analysis used in this is clear, rational and justifiable. The report makes a number of recommendations for how these objectives can be achieved.
The Heads of Food Agencies endorsed the report and its recommendations at their meeting in Cyprus on 4 December 2012. The Working Group will now develop an action plan for implementing the recommendations.
The Working Group comprised representatives from six national food agencies: the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FAVV), Belgium; the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Germany; the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), Netherlands; the Norwegian Food Safety Authority; the National Food Agency, Sweden; and the Food Standards Agency (FSA), UK.