A tool to diagnose context riskiness in view of food safety activities and microbiological safety output

Stakeholders entail increasing demands on food safety management systems (FSMS) stimulating ongoing efforts of companies to progress to more advanced systems. However, the actual microbiological food safety (FS) output is not only a result of the performance of an FSMS, but it also depends on the system’s context. Based on the assumption that companies in a high-risk context need advanced control and assurance activities, while in a low-risk context lower levels might be sufficient to realise a good FS output, this paper describes a diagnostic tool to assess riskiness of the context of an FSMS. Four major context factors product, process, organisation, and production chain environment have been described with sets of indicators and grids with descriptions of different risk levels. Finally, the paper discusses how advanced FSMS activities can better deal with a high-risk context.