Epidemiological studies and risk-based food inspection

A modern food inspection system should be risk-based, but the interpretation of the term risk-based is still controversial. Within this project this is defined as a food inspection system where a full evaluation of the effect of intervention on human or a nimal health including cost-benefit analyses should be performed before an intervention is established. The project will focus on meat and meat products, where, the meat inspection system as practiced in Norway and the EU is still mainly based upon the scenario as it was described 100 years ago. Meat-borne zoonotic agents represent a special challenge, as most of the pathogens are parts of a complex epidemiological system. The project will present a risk assessment-based model of the meat chain inclu ding cost-benefit evaluations for Toxoplasma gondii and Yersinia enterocolitica. The project will further compare the intervention strategies against Salmonella infections used in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The extension of a Nordic network linked also t o other activities will make sure that the project will form a part of the overall discussion about intervention strategies and cost-benefit aspects of such interventions.