title: [Sampling plans and microbiological criteria as risk management options in recently developed food safety concerns].
abstract: In connection with the World Trade Organization SPS-Agreement new concepts for ensuring food safety have been discussed for some years now. Main topics have been quantitative risk analyses investigating relationships between microbial concentrations in foods and disease probabilities as well as the concept of food safety objectives developed by ICMSF. So far food safety demands have been defined as microbiological criteria. However, usually it is not transparent, whether sampling plans incorporated in such criteria are based on specific prescriptions with regard to decision reliability and tolerable food qualities. In addition, it is still to be discussed, which parts microbiological criteria can play in connection with new concepts of food risk management, for instance as an option to test whether food safety objectives are met or not. The performance of microbiological sampling plans, as visualized by operation characteristic curves, assumptions made in this context, and relationships between food safety objectives and microbiological criteria as well as implications for food safety issues are investigated in this paper.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biometrie und Informationsverarbeitung, Fachbereich Veterinärmedizin, Freie Universität Berlin. Susanne.Dahms@schering.de
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dahms
mesh_terms: D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D005506:Food Contamination; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D012308:Risk Management