Presentation Abstract: Wendy Fineblum
Food Safety Risk Analysis Clearinghouse
The Food Safety Risk Analysis Clearinghouse is a collaborative effort of the Food and Drug Administration and the University of Maryland, as well several other US federal agencies, industry, academics, and international groups. The goals of the Clearinghouse are to promote the use of risk analysis in food safety decision-making, to increase transparency of the process and to improve access to the necessary resources. Access to the resources is being provided on the Internet, which has many advantages over the print media. The Clearinghouse home page illustrates a few ways in which we are currently promoting the use of food safety risk analysis in food safety. Examples include offering discussions of the components of risk analysis, terminology, links to databases and other relevant sites, as well as information on past and upcoming meetings.
We currently are working to promote transparency of the risk analysis process by linking to various completed and ongoing risk assessments.
Resources that will be available shortly include previously unpublished data. One example is a data set on temperatures of refrigerated and frozen foods as they are transported from the retail setting into the home. Other resources will include freeware that predicts bacterial growth kinetics, and introductory presentations on various aspects of risk assessment. We are also expanding the risk management section to include a more detailed description of the components of this step of risk analysis. In addition, we are developing hyper-linked risk assessments. These dynamic documents will allow access to the literature and data used in creating the risk assessment model, and thus will greatly contribute to increasing transparency of the process.
Providing resources on the Internet has its challenges, however. Content-related challenges include gaining access to data and risk assessments. Potential contributors of these resources may have concerns about control over their information, unwanted impacts of making data public (e.g., increased regulatory scrutiny), and receiving adequate recognition for their work. Once data are acquired, we must establish that they are worth posting. Instead of peer review, which evaluates data for answering a specific question, we have decided to require that data meet certain minimum standards, and be accompanied by supporting information (study design, source of funding, etc.), so that users can decide if they are appropriate for their particular purposes. Users can then share their opinions of the resource, which we can post for others to consider.
Technical challenges include assessing the users' needs, which the Clearinghouse has done by hosting open meetings to get users' input, and by soliciting users' feedback via our on-line user-needs survey. Keeping the design simple helps allow users to find the desired information efficiently. Limiting the use of large, slow graphic downloads improves access to individuals with a variety of computer hardware and software. Improving access to individuals with various physical handicaps is also a growing priority that the Clearinghouse will be considering for its next iteration. Testing users is an important step in assessing how effective the site is at allowing the target audience to access the information. The Clearinghouse has done this, and intends to continue this approach for developing future iterations. Standardizing the format in which the data are made available is another challenge that we face. This will become more necessary as the amount of data that we are posting increases.
