Measuring the safety of the food chain in Belgium: Development of a barometer

This paper describes the development of a concept to measure the safety of the food chain in Belgium based on the ‘Pressure–State–Response’ model. The actual measurement tool or barometer consists of a measurement of the ‘State’ based on a set of indicators. The present paper discusses the elaboration of a set of 30 food safety indicators (FSIs) as the basis of the food safety barometer. These indicators were weighted by expert opinion in order to determine their relative weight to be considered in the barometer. Food safety was reflected in a composite and agreed upon set of indicators related to i) the compliance to action limits/criteria for selected chemical and microbial hazards, ii) the implementation of preventive and control measures to mitigate food safety throughout the food chain from farm to fork and iii) the reported number of foodborne outbreaks and reported cases of some selected zoonotic agents (Salmonella sp. and Listeria monocytogenes). As food safety remains an abstract term and no quantitative value could be attributed (also due to lack of quantitative food safety objectives), the option was taken to document the status of food safety in a relative manner by comparing the results of the set of indicators of the current year with the previous year. By comparing the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 it was concluded that the status of the global food safety in Belgium was high and an upward trend could be observed. Statistical analysis on each of the individual indicators was performed, however since at present a restricted data set is available (2009 versus 2008 and 2008 versus 2007) no trend analysis could yet be performed. The barometer provides a helicopter view of the status of food safety in Belgium and is a tool to communicate in an intelligible, comprehensible manner on aspects of food safety to consumers and other stakeholders in the food chain. The methodology and results of the survey for the ‘Pressure’ and ‘Response’ collection from the Belgian stakeholders in the food chain will be discussed in another manuscript.