Risk analysis of food allergens

Risk analysis is the process of identifying hazards, assessing the risk of these hazards, identifying management options to reduce risks, weighing these, choosing and implementing risk reduction measures, and communication of existing or potential risks. This process has been developed for chemical, physical, or biological hazards in or of food in general. For allergens, this process seemed less suitable until recently, because there was no sound risk assessment method. In this chapter, new developments are described allowing a clear risk analysis strategy for allergens in food (Figure 15.1). The structure of this chapter is based on the successive steps given in Figure 15.1.