IRAC Annual Plan (FY2012)

 The May 1997 Food Safety Initiative report to the U.S. President recommended the establishment of an Interagency Risk Assessment Consortium (IRAC), comprising all federal agencies with food safety risk analysis responsibilities. The Risk Assessment Consortium enhances communication and coordination among federal agencies, and promotes the conduct of scientific research to inform risk assessments, thereby providing support for the regulatory agencies in fulfilling their food safety risk management mandates. Current membership includes 19 Federal agencies or sub-agencies. Each agency is represented by a technical and a policy council representative.

The IRAC serves as an interagency collaborative network, and accomplishes much of its goals through work groups. These work groups have goals and deliverables realized in form of workshops and meetings. The IRAC has expanded its range of issues addressed from microbial risk assessment in food, to chemical risk assessment, including water and the environment, and to ideas related to nutrients, nanotechnology, susceptible subpopulations, genomics and proteomics.

Goals of IRAC

The goals of IRAC as set forth in its charter are provided below

1. Improve risk assessment research
2. Enhance the development and use of risk assessment models and tools
3. Serve as a forum to communicate about risk assessment and related research issues including enhancement of the use of quantitative risk assessment in the decision making regulatory process.

In 2012, IRAC will seek focus additional efforts to enhance the visibility of IRAC as an expert risk assessment body. Specific plans are noted below:

Technical / Policy Council Meetings

The Interagency Risk Assessment Consortium (IRAC) will continue holding technical quarterly meetings, where the technical representatives of the member agencies exchange risk assessment and risk assessment–related research information. The semi annual Policy Council meetings will also continue.

Quarterly Meeting Presentations

• i. Continue presentations by agency representatives on current risk assessments and issues related to risk assessment, including rapid risk assessment. As requested by the presenting agency, provide peer review comments and suggestions for improving the risk assessment documents or models.
• ii. Invite presentations by other organizations, e.g., International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), JIFSAN, academia, industry, and consumer groups.

Work Group Projects

The IRAC accomplishes much of its work through work groups formed to address specific topics or issues. It encourages work groups to have a definite beginning and endpoint and that if needed additional work is identified that the technical representative should submit a proposal for a new workgroup. The proposed work group activities planned for 2012 are listed below.

New Work Groups

Clarification of the Various Approaches for Assessing Risk A white paper will be developed, outlining various approaches to risk assessment. Ongoing Work Groups

• IRAC-IFSAC Joint Project on Risk Assessment as a Method for Determining Attribution to Foodborne Illness 
  Hold a workshop and prepare a report for publication
• Susceptible Populations 
  Prepare report for publication
• Listeria monocytogenes dose-response model 
  Prepare report for publication

Workshops/Meetings/Mini symposia

• Workshop with the Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration to share information on use of risk assessment for determining source attribution to foodborne illness (February 2012).
• IRAC Workshop on “Chemical Risk Assessment” (June 2012)
• Symposium at the Annual Meeting of the International Association for Food Protection (July 2012) • Public meeting in conjunction with the Capital Area Food Protection Association (Fall, 2012)