In this section:
About Food Safety
The SARDI Food Safety science program area is a part of the Innovative Food and Plants research division, and was developed in recognition of the increasing need for the application of transparent, scientifically objective risk assessment approaches to underpin the achievement of objectives of new public health legislation and market access health criteria. Since its inception in 2001, the program has attracted funding from state and national health jurisdictions and national commodity agencies to conduct studies aimed at protecting public health.
Innovative and expanded research outputs are achieved through the integration of a range of scientific disciplines required for food safety risk assessment that meet new Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) standards. These include public health epidemiology, veterinary public health, statistical analysis, toxicology, predictive microbiology, risk modelling, food microbiology and risk communication.
The program aims to:
- Reduce the public health foodborne disease burden
- Develop through-chain food safety systems that reflect the degree of risk
- Develop cost-effective food safety programs to maximise uptake by industry
- Identify sources of foodborne hazard contamination and options for control
- Identify potential for increased foodborne risk as a result of production and processing innovation
- Develop tools for risk ranking product:hazard combinations to guide risk management
Program delivery
The program runs an extensive risk communication process with all stakeholders. The aim is to transparently work with regulators, producers and industry bodies to make appropriate improvements without raising undue, adverse media coverage.
An overview of the Food Safety Program capabilities, technical outputs and industry outcomes is given in Capability Profiles.
Details of current and past Research Projects include objectives, technical outputs and outcomes.
