A tiered approach for risk-benefit assessment of foods.
Risk-benefit analyses are introduced as a new paradigm for old problems. However, in many cases it is not always necessary to perform a full comprehensive and expensive quantitative risk-benefit assessment to solve the problem, nor is it always possible, given the lack of required date. The choice to continue from a more qualitative to a full quantitative risk-benefit assessment can be made using a tiered approach. In this article, this tiered approach for risk-benefit assessment will be addressed using a decision tree. The tiered approach described uses the same four steps as the risk assessment paradigm: hazard and benefit identification, hazard and benefit characterization, exposure assessment, and risk-benefit characterization, albeit in a different order. For the purpose of this approach, the exposure assessment has been moved upward and the dose-response modeling (part of hazard and benefit characterization) is moved to a later stage. The decision tree includes several stop moments, depending on the situation where the gathered information is sufficient to answer the initial risk-benefit question. The approach has been tested for two food ingredients. The decision tree presented in this article is useful to assist on a case-by-case basis a risk-benefit assessor and policymaker in making informed choices when to stop or continue with a risk-benefit assessment.
National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands. heidi.fransen@rivm.nl
Heidi
H
Fransen
Nynke
N
de Jong
Marieke
M
Hendriksen
Marcel
M
Mengelers
Jacqueline
J
Castenmiller
Jeljer
J
Hoekstra
Rolaf
R
van Leeuwen
Hans
H
Verhagen
D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005502:Food; D018570:Risk Assessment