title: The use of meta-analytical tools in risk assessment for food safety.
abstract: This communication deals with the use of meta-analysis as a valuable tool for the synthesis of food safety research, and in quantitative risk assessment modelling. A common methodology for the conduction of meta-analysis (i.e., systematic review and data extraction, parameterisation of effect size, estimation of overall effect size, assessment of heterogeneity, and presentation of results) is explained by reviewing two meta-analyses derived from separate sets of primary studies of Salmonella in pork. Integrating different primary studies, the first meta-analysis elucidated for the first time a relationship between the proportion of Salmonella-carrier slaughter pigs entering the slaughter lines and the resulting proportion of contaminated carcasses at the point of evisceration; finding that the individual studies on their own could not reveal. On the other hand, the second application showed that meta-analysis can be used to estimate the overall effect of a critical process stage (chilling) on the incidence of the pathogen under study. The derivation of a relationship between variables and a probabilistic distribution is illustrations of the valuable quantitative information synthesised by the meta-analytical tools, which can be incorporated in risk assessment modelling. Strengths and weaknesses of meta-analysis within the context of food safety are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Biosystems Engineering, UCD School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. ursula.gonzalesbarron@ucd.ie
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gonzales-Barron
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Butler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D059022:Food Safety / Q000379:methods*; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012475:Salmonella / Q000254:growth & development; D013552:Swine