The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is modernizing its risk-based approach to oversight which will allow prioritizing the allocation of inspection activities to areas of highest risk. This includes the development of a risk assessment model aimed at quantifying the risk associated with food establishments. The model concept is based on the allocation of risks to food establishments based on their impact upon the consumers’ health in Canada. The underlying principle is that the total impact expressed as Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) remains constant, but the proportion allocated to individual facilities is fluid. This value takes into consideration the number of cases attributed to each food safety hazard yearly, their association to specific food commodities and products, and the health impact per case of illness for each hazard. The health impact is first allocated to individual establishments based on the volume of each product type they manufacture. The establishment-level health impact is then adjusted considering the presence or absence of specific food safety risk factors and their relative weights.
In designing the model algorithm, the identification and selection of significant risk factors was a critical step that was completed thorough an elicitation with 75 Canadian food safety experts. The selected risk factors were then grouped in four risk clusters (Incoming Materials, Establishment Food Safety Control System, Product Related Processes, and Environmental Controls) based on their close relationship. Finally, a second expert elicitation (2014) helped estimate the relative weight of each risk factor through a face-to-face Delphi approach.
The model has been tested in meat/poultry and dairy establishments and is currently being piloted in other commodities; and the model performance will be assessed by comparing the model outputs with the scores given by senior inspectors to establishments that participate in the pilot projects.