The Use of Omics in Exposure Assessment

Exposure assessment plays a central role in microbiological risk assessment. It provides an estimation of both the likelihood and the level of a microbial hazard in a specified consumer portion of food, taking microbial behaviour into account. To date, mostly phenotypic data have been used in exposure assessment. This presentation will illustrate how mechanistic cellular information obtained through omics techniques could make a difference in: (i) understanding the dynamics of pathogens in a complex food eco-system; and, (ii) predicting pathogen behaviour variability. Advancements in the research activities of these two domains will be presented and discussed, through examples, with a special focus on industrial applications.