Risk Categorization of Foods of Non-Animal Origin Subject to United Kingdom Import Controls

• Published in: Journal of food protection Vol. 88; no. 3; p. 100459
• Main Authors: Neill, Amy, Hudson, J.Andrew, Axon, Andy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 26.02.2025; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animals; Border check; Commerce; Consumer Product Safety; Food Contamination - analysis; Food Contamination - prevention & control; Food Microbiology; Food Safety; Foods of nonanimal origin; heat; Humans; Imported foods; imports; mycotoxins; public health; relative risk; Risk Assessment; Risk categorization; United Kingdom; World Trade Organization; United Kingdom; Risk categorization; Imported foods; Border check; Foods of nonanimal origin; Risk assessment
• ISSN: 0362-028X; 1944-9097; 1944-9097
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfp.2025.100459

•A risk categorization of exporting country/food/hazard combinations was developed.•Combinations containing chemical, mycotoxin, and bacterial hazards were ranked.•The novel tool benchmarked combinations and facilitated temporal comparisons.•Heat maps were used to aid risk communication. Significant volumes of foods are traded between countries, and this trade brings with it opportunities for foodborne hazards to cross borders and pose a public health risk. The Competent Authority in the importing country has a duty to protect its population from these foodborne hazards. Due to the high volumes of imported food as well as World Trade Organization requirements, border checks need to be prioritized in a risk-based manner. This represents an enormous practical challenge to which efficient solutions are required. This paper describes an approach to risk categorization and ranking of imported Foods of Non-Animal Origin on a food/country of origin/hazard (combination) basis. Combinations were scored using data on product characteristics, hazard characteristics, and import volumes, with weightings applied following external consultation. The described approach differs from most others in that it categorizes and ranks microbiological, mycotoxin, and chemical hazards with a single approach and on the same scale, allowing for meaningful comparison between the combinations. The output is a risk categorization, a relative risk ranking and a heat map, all of which provide information that can be used alongside other data by risk managers when prioritizing interventions at the border.