On issues related to national risk-based system for control over food products distributed on the market

Abstract

This research is vital given great significance of food safety for population and bearing in mind that food products are an independent object of sanitary-epidemiologic control as it is stipulated by the legislation. We suggest approaches to creating a risk-based model for control over food products distributed on the market. These ap-proaches involve categorizing food products as per potential health risks for consumers; building up risk profiles of food products; optimizing laboratory support provided for control and surveillance activities taking into account food products safety management. When categorizing food products, risk is assessed as a combination of probable violation of obligatory requirements to safety and severity of consequences these violations might have. Food products that are assigned into extremely high, high and considerable risk categories are subject to systemic control once a year, every two years or every three years accordingly. In case a surveillance object seems “law-abiding’, its category and intensity of control procedures may be changed. Programs for laboratory control over food products are suggested to be based on risk profiles, spotting out priority indicators that make major contributions into risks. Also the approach involves using mathematical models that describe a relation between a number of observations and an expected answer (as a reduction in quantities of deviating samples at the next stage in the control cycle). This model determines how many samples of priority indicators should be tested in order to achieve a target risk level. It also allows predict an expected number of violations and health risk rates at the next stage in the control cycle given the present number of observations. 85 regional registers of food products were created and categories were determined as per health risks for all groups of food products under surveillance. It was shown that in some cases it was necessary to increase a number of observations over priority (“risky”) indicators in order to detect hazardous products and withdraw them from the market. Certain examinations seem redundant as they don’t play any role in making control procedures more efficient. The suggested approaches are universal and dynamic. Basic trends in the model development may include more targeted selection of products for control; risk profiles creations and systemic actualization; further development of laboratory support for control (surveillance) given that the food products market is changing dynamically in the country.