Abstract:

During the past 10 years, there has been increasing concern about food safety at the governmental level in
China. Due to the more outbreaks of foodborne disease caused by pathogens than other hazards from official statistics, the
quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) should be further improved from the scientific standpoint to narrow the gap
reduction with developed countries since the implementation of the Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China in
2009 and the foundation of China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) in 2011. This review listed the
major pathogens and the food vectors concerned in China during 2000–2013, and predictive microbiological models and
dose-response models used in Chinese research were analyzed. Moreover, several possible technical factors and relevant
solutions to conduct QMRA in China were described in detail. Future applications of QMRA were discussed such as helping
to design the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system and to establish the Food Safety Objective or
Performance Objective (FSO/PO) for setting the microbiological standards. Furthermore, it will be necessary to improve the
connection between risk assessors and managers, to enhance the risk inspection, to set the microbiological limit standards and
to develop more international cooperations. QMRA should be conducted according to the general guidelines of international
associations scientifically and systematically under China actual situations for the next 10 years.

Key words: quantitative microbial risk assessment, pathogen, predictive microbiology