FSIS, EPA Release Guideline for Microbial Risk Assessments
The agencies said it will be a resource used by federal risk assessors, their agents, contractors, and others in the risk assessment community.
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Environmental Protection Agency have produced a guideline for conducting microbial risk assessments, or MRAs, in food and water. They announced July 30 in the Federal Register that this guideline will improve transparency in the way they conduct MRAs and "will promote consistency in approaches and methods."
The guideline also will be a resource used by federal risk assessors, their agents, contractors, and others in the risk assessment community.
A downloadable version of the guideline and related materials, including comments from the external peer review panel, are available at this website. The agencies' notice said no printed copies of the guideline have been published.
For more information, contact Kerry Dearfield, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, 1400 Independence Ave. SW, Mail Stop 3766, Washington, DC 20250; [email protected]; 202-690-6451; or Michael Broder, Office of the Science Advisor, Mail Code 8105-R, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460; [email protected]; 202-564-3393.