Horizon Scanning and Foresight: An overview of approaches and possible applications in Food Safety

Horizon Scanning and Foresight: An overview of approaches and possible applications in Food Safety

Background paper 2: FAO Early Warning/Rapid Alert and Horizon Scanning, Food Safety Technical Workshop, Rome, 22-25 October, 2013

Year of publication 2014

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 36 p.

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Document

Edition 1

Full item page

Synopsis (short abstract) Many factors inside and outside the food production system(s) could directly and/or indirectly drive the emergence of important food safety hazards, risks and issues. It is important to identify these events at an early stage of the system or preferably prevent their occurrence. To improve food control systems at any level, the food control paradigm has shifted from reactionary to preventative (predictive) approaches. Effective monitoring of important drivers of change that could contribute to t he emergence of important hazards or issues is necessary at the global, regional, and/or country-level. Traditionally, various surveillance approaches and tools are used to identify and assess potential hazards, risks and issues and to provide recommendations for potential actions. While these traditional approaches are reasonably effective to identify immediate hazards and issues, there is a need to also predict important medium to long-term issues to allow for effective preventative actions. H orizon scanning/foresight/future scenario methodologies or approaches have been widely used across different sectors for many years, and more recently in food safety to identify potential medium and long-term hazards and opportunities.

Language English

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