Annual report of the Scientific Network on Microbiological Risk Assessment 2016

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Published on: Tue, 20 Dec 2016 14:00:45 +0100

Among the tasks of EFSA, according to its founding regulation (Regulation (EC) No 178/2002), there is the establishment of a system of Networks of organisations operating in the fields within EFSA’s mission, the objective being to facilitate a scientific cooperation framework by the coordination of activities, the exchange of information, the development and implementation of joint projects, the exchange of expertise and best practices. Additionally, the EFSA Science Strategy 2012-2016 set the objective of developing, together with Member States’ competent authorities, multi-annual work programmes focused on filling data gaps and on setting priorities for data collections. To implement the above provisions various Networks were established. The Scientific Network on Microbiological Risk Assessment (MRA Network) had its first meeting in 2007 and, ever since, one or two meetings per year have been held. Currently, 25 European Union Member States and two observer countries (Switzerland and Norway) are members of the MRA Network. In 2016, the MRA Network held its biannual meetings on 12-13 April 2016 and 11-12 October 2016, in Parma. A wide range of topics related to microbial risk assessment were discussed during the two meetings.