Expertise for the future: learning and training in the area of food safety risk assessment

Abstract

EFSA depends on a system of scientific panels, working groups and the expertise of its staff to perform its role in providing high-quality scientific opinions through food safety risk assessment. The centralisation of the evaluation at the EU level not only intends to increase efficiency, but also may represent a challenge with regard to maintaining and developing expertise in the areas of food, feed, plant, animal and environmental risk assessment. The food risk assessment requires a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach: excellence in relevant fields of science is a prerequisite, although knowledge of the full risk analysis process, the EU food law, consumer behaviour, international relations and skills in risk communication is also needed. To handle future challenges regarding food safety risk assessment in an ever-changing and increasingly complex environment, the appropriate expertise needs to be identified and a model of specialised and continuous training is required. The state of the art and the future of education in risk assessment are presented. The following issues are put forward in this special issue: new technologies implemented in risk assessment training; current developments in higher education and training on food safety risk assessment and regulatory science in the EU and worldwide; challenges in training on general risk assessment, food safety risk assessment and environmental risk assessment; best practices and techniques; future developments in capacity building for risk assessment training; and the increased need for training of professionals.

Students’ perceptions of a food safety and quality e-learning course: a CASE study for a MSC in food consumption

“…The food safety risk assessment is a scientific field that is constantly advancing and, as such, a lot of educational programmes have been developed recently with a focus on keeping professionals up to date with suitable lifelong training programmes on different forms (Bosman et al, 2016). Many Programmes at European universities or other academic institutions provide specific programmes at Bachelor and Master's levels, as well as doctoral education in food science, toxicology or other related areas that cover aspects of Food Safety and Food Risk Assessment (Kneifel, 2012).…”

“…Many Programmes at European universities or other academic institutions provide specific programmes at Bachelor and Master's levels, as well as doctoral education in food science, toxicology or other related areas that cover aspects of Food Safety and Food Risk Assessment (Kneifel, 2012). Nowadays, around 60 programmes in Europe formal education programmes and training) explicitly mention 'Food Safety' in their curriculum names (Bosman et al, 2016). Students that are already on their professional jobs related with food industry, search lifelong training on this field of food safety, because of the requirement in the Codex Alimentarius (WHO & FAO, 2009).…”

Editorial: The European Food Risk Assessment Fellowship Programme (EU‐FORA)

“…International organisations like EFSA should play their role in identifying and determining expertise and competencies needed from professionals, predicting also the future needs and participate in the setup of the curriculum and the organisation of relevant training programs of various levels and forms (Bosman et al, 2016). International organisations like EFSA should play their role in identifying and determining expertise and competencies needed from professionals, predicting also the future needs and participate in the setup of the curriculum and the organisation of relevant training programs of various levels and forms (Bosman et al, 2016).…”

“…During EFSA's Second Scientific Conference held in Milan in November 2015, one of the main conclusions of the session on Expertise for the Future was that EFSA and other organisations responsible for conducting food safety risk assessment, are encouraged to invest in capacity building and methodology development and harmonisation activities, and to maintain excellence in performing risk assessment activities. International organisations like EFSA should play their role in identifying and determining expertise and competencies needed from professionals, predicting also the future needs and participate in the setup of the curriculum and the organisation of relevant training programs of various levels and forms (Bosman et al, 2016).…”

Open risk assessment: data

“…Although the application of data mining and visualisation tools offer enormous potential in the areas of science and technology, as well as food safety, a key challenge is to empower experts and the general public to generate and read data visualisations to produce reliable analyses. In this regard, 'open education', such as MOOCs (Bosman et al, 2016), free online courses that teach data visualisation skills, has an important role to play. Many companies have already started to embrace MOOCs to promote data visualisation literacy, and this trend is likely to continue.…”