With the advancement of analytical capabilities, new chemical contaminants having no regulatory limits are being detected in the foods. Under such scenarios, risk managers of the competent authority might not have enough time to wait for the full risk assessment. Nevertheless, they must take appropriate measures to protect the public health based on the rapid risk assessment. Codex has recently formulated a guideline CXG 92-2019 to address such scenarios.
This guideline should only be applied in the conditions: (a) the contaminant is new in the food and was not previously reported; (b) it has no regulatory limit; (c) there are no specific codex guidelines or standards related to that contaminants in the foods.
Decision tree for rapid risk analysis
The codex guideline CXG 92-2019 provides the decision tree for the rapid risk analysis and is shown in the figure below:
