The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) convened an Expert Consultation on Risk Assessment of Microbiological Hazards in Foods in FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy from 17 - 21 July 2000. The list of participants is presented in Annex 1.
Mr Hartwig de Haen, Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Department in FAO opened the Consultation on behalf of the two sponsoring organizations. In welcoming the participants Mr de Haen stated that although the safety of food has always been an important issue, it is currently one that is high on the political agenda of many countries. This is due to greater consumer awareness of this issue and emerging risks and challenges in the area of food safety, one of which are microbiological hazards in foods. A number of factors have contributed to these new challenges including emerging and re-emerging pathogens, changes in methods of food production at the farm and processing level and changing consumer demands and consumption patterns.
The expansion of international trade in food has also increased the risk of infectious agents being disseminated from the original point of production to locations thousands of miles away; therefore, there was a need to address this issue at the international level. To this end Mr de Haen recalled that the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), at its 23rd Session, adopted the Principles and Guidelines for the Conduct of Microbiological Risk Assessment (CAC/GL-30 (1999)). In continuing its work on microbiological risk analysis, the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH), at its last (32nd) session, requested expert risk assessment advice on a number of pathogen-commodity combinations.
In concluding, Mr de Haen reminded the experts that they were participating in this expert consultation in their personal capacity as authoritative experts on this subject and not as representatives of their respective governments, organizations or institutions.
The consultation elected Prof. Jean-Louis Jouve (France) as Chairperson and Dr David Jordan (Australia) as Vice-Chairperson. Dr Emilio Esteban (USA) was elected as Rapporteur. The consultation also appointed a chairperson and rapporteur for each of the working groups. Dr Paw Dalgaard (Denmark) and Dr Inocencio Higuera (Mexico) were nominated as Chairperson and Rapporteur, respectively, for the working group on Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods. Dr David Jordan and Dr Julia Kiehlbauch (USA) were nominated as Chairperson and Rapporteur, respectively, for the working group on Salmonella spp. in eggs and broilers.
