This report presents the results of an investigation performed by the  working group  on data collection for the identification of emerging risks related to food and feed  (DACO WG).  The  WG  proposed a  procedure to identify, assess, rank and prioritize data sources  - a two-step process based on the National Intelligence Model and the Dataquest approaches. This procedure consists of i) an initial classification of the identified data sources, followed by a monitoring period of the pre-selected data sources and ii) a consecutive and more detailed quality assessment of the relevant data sources for ranking and prioritization purposes. The dataset containing the characterization of the sources identified is included as an Excel file. 

As part of a semi-quantitative risk assessment of 10 seafood hazard/product combinations, a risk assessment tool was used to generate a Risk Ranking. The tool is in a spreadsheet software format and provides a risk estimate, which is scaled between 0 and 100, where 0 represents no risk and 100 represents all meals containing a lethal dose of the hazard. A full description of the tool is contained in Ross and Sumner (this issue).

Risk profiles of pork and poultry meat were carried out using an Excel-based software program, Risk Ranger. It is a semi-quantitative risk estimator answering various questions relating to the probability of exposure to a hazard, susceptibility of the population of interest, severity of the illness caused by the hazard if present and probability of food containing an infectious dose. Therefore, qualitative and quantitative inputs were used to estimate and rank the risk of various hazards/food combinations. Risk scores provided by the tool were characterized as low, medium and high. Also, health risk was estimated separately, where needed, for low and high risk populations. 

This one-page worksheet was created by Northern Kentucky's Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health (PACE EH) team to help prioritize the environmental health issues that emerged from their PACE EH process.

A semiquantitative risk ranking tool was created to identify priority pathogen-produce commodity combinations based on explicit data-driven risk criteria. To identify candidate pathogen-commodity pairs, a database was created that included all reports of outbreaks associated with fresh produce from the Annual Listing of Foodborne Disease Outbreaks compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 1996 to 2006 (CDC, 1996—2006).

Risk Ranger is a simple food safety risk calculation tool intended as an aid to determining relative risks from different product, pathogen and processing combinations. Risk Ranger provides a simple and quick means to develop a first estimate of relative risk. It is a generic but robust model that uses information about all elements of food safety to make risk calculations.The model can be used by risk managers and others without extensive experience in risk modelling. It is a useful tool for helping to train food safety managers to think in terms of risk. The user is required to answer 11 questions related to the severity of the hazard, likelihood of a disease-causing dose of the hazard being present in a meal and the probability of exposure to the hazard.