Animal product imports project: public health expert opinion elicitation

Food products can be categorised (e.g. high, medium, low) based on potential for causing illness
or serious harm (i.e. growth or presence of microbial pathogens, presence of chemical
contaminants, biotoxins etc). This type of categorisation can be a useful tool for describing the
food safety risks associated with different types, or groups, of imported commodities.
An expert knowledge elicitation (EKE) approach was developed by the FSA, aimed to assess and
categorise the inherent food product safety risks of different Products Of Animal Origin (POAO)
imported in the UK. Experts rated the worst-case likelihood of relevant microbiological pathogens,
biotoxins and chemical contaminants being present at levels which are of potential public health
concern when eaten in various POAO categories.
This report describes the EKE approach and the estimates and views of the experts, based on
the information available to them, at that time.