At the regional and international level the approaches to identification of emerging issues, to date, have focussed mainly on the exploitation of knowledge networks and individual and institutional expertise. The session will look at the how different organisations (EFSA, FAO, WHO) have approached this and used the resulting information to guide their work.
Industry well recognizes the importance of being forewarned of potential risks and this session will present some of the tools which are being used in the food industry, including webscouting tools, based on text mining principles, to identify emerging risks with the support of a network of experts. It will, also, look at how industry is exploring the opportunity to extract additional information from raw data generated for other purposes (e.g., analytical data), trend analysis, and vulnerability maps.
Other more systematic approaches are being developed by research and academic institutions. To illustrate this, the session will include an approach to assess chemicals currently registered under REACH legislation for the identification of potential emerging chemical risks in the food and feed chain by evaluating parameters related to exposure (tonnage, release, biodegradation, and potential accumulation) and toxicity.