Practical considerations on food safety objectives

The concept of food safety objectives (FSO) is very strong in that it may make food safety transparent and quantifiable. This brings a major advantage in that one can ensure food safety at the process where it is the most effective in meeting the overall integrated objective. A practical overview is given how to derive FSOs from population health goals, through product group health objectives. Then these FSOs can be used to assign the responsibilities over the various parts of the food chain, and within one part of the chain over the various process stages, linking finally the limits of the CCPs in HACCP to the overall public health objective. Determination of characteristic numbers (log change in numbers) can help to supply the quantification of the various parts. Finally, the impact of the statistical distribution of the concentration of pathogens in foods is taken into account, and how it impacts compliance to an FSO.