Integrated Risk-benefit in Food and Nutrition.

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Integrated Risk-Benefit Analysis (RBA) compares the risk of a situation to its related benefits and addresses the acceptability of the risk. Over the past years RBA in relation to food and food ingredients has gained attention. Food, and even the same food ingredient, may confer both beneficial and adverse effects. Measures directed at food safety may lead to suboptimal or insufficient levels of ingredients from a benefit perspective. Methods: In RBA, benefits and risks of food (ingredients) are assessed in one go and may conditionally be expressed into one currency. This allows the comparison of adverse and beneficial effects to be qualitative and quantitative. A RBA should help policy-makers to make more informed and balanced benefit-risk management decisions. Not allowing food benefits to occur in order to guarantee food safety is a risk management decision much the same as accepting some risk in order to achieve more benefits. Results: In 2012-2013 the large EU projects in this area closed (QALIBRA http//www.qalibra.eu/, BENERIS http//en.opasnet.org/w/Beneris, BRAFO http//www.ilsi.org/Europe/Pages/BRAFO.aspx, BEPRARIBEAN http//en.opasnet.org/w/Bepraribean). Many papers have been published, thereby making significant progress in this area. There are ample examples were benefits outweigh potential risks for public health, including for micronutrient fortification (e.g. folic acid). Conclusions: The results can be used for ranking of risks and benefits, and reporting to policy makers to make effective decisions, and to convey these to a wider stakeholder audience. The improved awareness, understanding, availability and exchange of knowledge in benefit-risk analysis will be vital to implement benefit-risk assessment, ranking, management and communication.