A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION TO IMPROVE PUBLIC HEALTH Methodology Primer for the Foodborne Illness Risk Ranking Model

The goal of the Food Safety Research Consortium (FSRC) is to improve how the U.S. food safety system works to reduce the threat of foodborne illness. To achieve this goal, the FSRC is developing decision tools that policymakers need to better identify and prioritize opportunities to reduce food safety risks and allocate government resources accordingly. As a first step, the FSRC is developing a computer risk-ranking model that will enable policymakers, risk managers, and risk analysts to compare and rank the relative public health impact of specific foodborne hazards, including appropriate measures of the economic impact of illness. This model, the Foodborne Illness Risk Ranking Model (FIRRM), is being developed jointly by Resources for the Future and the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, with guidance from other institutions within the FSRC. The goal of the project is not to produce a single risk ranking, but rather to provide a widely accepted and widely utilized tool that is transparent and objective and which will permit risk managers to compare risks using a variety of measures. FIRRM will help focus efforts to reduce illness because it will enable risk managers to focus data collection and analytical efforts, and eventually regulatory efforts and other food safety interventions, on the most important problems.