Food Safety and Defense
To control the risks in the food supply we first need to understand them.
Introduction
Why does Food Safety and Defense need risk science?
Food is a basic human need. Access to a safe food supply is vital to the wellbeing of everybody. However, there continue to be threats to the food supply from contamination that poses harm. This contamination includes both chemical and biological hazards. Contamination occurs naturally, can be unintentionally introduced during production and processing, or added intentionally to cause harm to consumers. Whatever the source of contamination, there are two key questions – how much harm will this cause? And what can be done to reduce that harm? The food production chain is complex, with many interconnected processes that combine to lead to our food on a plate. This complexity makes answering the key questions almost impossible without the application of quantitative modelling to describe the relationships in the food chain that determine the risks to the consumer from contaminated food.
"From farm to plate,
make food safe."
by 2015 World Health Day (World Health Organization)
RSI and Food Safety and Defense
RSI's Motivation
RSI has a long history exploring risks associated with the food supply. RSI believes that sound science and robust models are key to supporting the difficult decisions that surround the food chain, including both food safety and food defense issues.
What is our expertise in Food Safety and Defense?
RSI is internationally recognised for our risk assessment work in the food sector. This includes extensive experience developing microbiological risk assessments, and chemical safety assessments, and developing models to explore the impacts of terrorist threats to the food supply from intentional adulteration. This includes a rare combination of expertise in microbiology, toxicology, statistics, computer modeling and engineering analysis, computer programming, and decision-support product development.
RSI has worked with UN FAO and WHO for over a decade supporting them in their pursuit of a safe food supply for all, and continues to provide risk assessment expertise to this important endeavour.
Serving You
Our expertise spans from supporting organisations in their development of risk models through data gathering and synthesis, to the development of customised models and tools to conduct quantitative risk assessments.
One thing we all have in common, the need for food safety.
RSI Sectors
RSI serves governments, corporations, and organizations.
Chemical and Product Safety
RSI staff and affiliated scientists have an extensive background in epidemiology, toxicology, and pharmacology, that can help identify and characterize chemical risk and product safety. Clients include a variety of public and private sector organizations. Epidemiology: RSI has analyzed large and complex data sets to explore environmental, occupational...
Public Health
RSI has extensive experience modelling the risks and consequences associated with infectious disease spread amongst human and animal populations. We have worked with public health organizations in more than 175 countries to safeguard public health and help respond to potential threats to the population. RSI has been involved in a variety of projects...
Food Safety and Defense
Risk Sciences International has a team of internationally recognized experts with over 100 years of combined experience in human health risk assessment, quantitative microbiological risk assessment, and risk assessment methodology. RSI staff and affiliated scientists have a wealth of experience in the development of quantitative risk assessments and...
Climate Change and Adaptation
Risk Sciences International has extensive and unique experience in those key domains required to help organizations adapt to climate change: applied meteorology, engineering climatology, climate science, hydrology, social and behavioral science, risk assessment and management, and IT-based decision-support. RSI provides climate risk assessment and...
Agriculture
Approaches to measuring, characterizing, and managing risks and opportunities in the agricultural sector continue to evolve with time, thanks in part to the use of new technologies in the collection of data, and advancements in agriculture-related science and computing power for risk analysis. RSI’s experience in the Agricultural sector ranges...
Drug Safety and Effectiveness Monitoring
Risk Sciences International has significant experience managing drug safety to help related stakeholders ensure the health and well-being of the public. RSI has experience analyzing a wide variety of drugs across all demographics, using a range of analytic and modeling techniques including physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling. RSI’s...
Public Safety and Security
Risk Sciences International has comprehensive experience working with organizations to enhance public safety and security. Areas of expertise include non-biological hazards often associated with occupational health and safety issues, as well as emergency preparedness activities focusing on natural disaster, disease epidemic, or malicious acts. RSI has...
Urban Risk and Resiliency
The planning, design, and operation of the urban space requires multidisciplinary research and decision support to understand and mitigate the impact of hazards, natural or man-made, malicious or accidental. Risk Sciences International applies its expertise in extreme weather and climate change, infrastructure vulnerability...
Urban Risk and Resiliency
Public Safety and Security
Public Health
Food Safety and Defense
Drug Safety and Effectiveness Monitoring
Climate Change and Adaptation
Chemical and Product Safety
Agriculture
RSI Clients and Stakeholders
300+
Gov & IGO
Federal, regional and local government authorities and international/multilateral organizations including the United Nations and UN Agencies:Â
- Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC)
- Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES)
- Agriculture - Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
- Alberta Health and Wellness Services
- Arctic Aquatic Research Division
- Australian Food Safety Centre (FSC)
- Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste
- BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC)
- BC Ministry of Environment (BCMoE)
- BC Ministry of Transport (BCMoT)
- Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
- Canadian Heritage (PCH)
- Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) of FDA
- Central Research Institute of Japan
- China Institute for Radiation Protection
- Chinese Center for Disease Control & Prevention
- City of Barrie
- City of Calgary
- City of Kingston
- City of Mississauga
- City of Ottawa
- City of Toronto
- Community of Federal Regulators (CFR)
- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
- Credit Valley Conservation Authority (CVCA)
- Crown Indigenous and Northern Affairs (CIRNA)
- Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC)
- Dene First Nation
- Department of Finance Canada (FIN)
- Department of Health, UK
- Department of Justice Canada (JUS)
- Department of National Defence (DND)
- Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)
- Environmental Commission of Ontario (ECO)
- European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
- European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
- European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA)
- European Union (EU)
- Fisheries & Oceans Canada (DFO)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
- Food Protection and Defense Institute (FPDI)
- GIZ
- Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
- Global Observatory for eHealth (WHO)
- Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health (WHO)
- Government of New Brunswick (GNB)
- Government of Northwest Territories (GNWT)
- Greater Vancouver Regional District
- Green Cross International (GCI)
- Health Canada (HC)
- Homeland Security Centers of Excellence (HS-Centers) of U.S. Dept of Homeland Security.
- Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC)
- Industry Canada (IC)
- International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO)
- International AIDS Society (IAS)
- International Air Transport Association (IATA)
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- International Organization for Migration (IOM)
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- International Social Security Association (ISSA)
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- Japan Atomic Energy Agency
- Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
- Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority
- Measurement Canada (MC)
- MetroLinx
- National Centre for Food Protection & Defense (NCFPD) Homeland Security Center of Excellence)
- National Research Council Canada (NRC)
- Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)
- New Brunswick Government (GNB), Dept. of Environment and Local Government
- Northern Ontario Public Services
- Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA)
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPCC)
- Ontario Association for Impact Assessment (OAIA)
- Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources (OCCIAR)
- Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure
- Ontario Ministry of the Environment & Climate Change (OMECC)
- Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)
- Public Health England (PHE)
- Public Safety Canada (PSC)
- Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)
- Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC)
- Regional Municipality of Durham
- Regional Municipality of Waterloo
- RIVM National Institute for Public Health and the Environment
- Roll Back Malaria (RBM)Â Partnership (WHO)
- Spectrum Management and Telecommunications - Industry Canada
- Statistics Canada (StatCan)
- Stop TB Partnership
- Technical Standards & Safety Authority (TSSA)
- Tobacco Free Initiative TFI (WHO)
- Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA)
- Toronto Public Health (TPH)
- Transport Canada (TC)
- Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada (TBS)
- UN Watch
- UN-Habitat
- UNITAID
- United Nations (UN)
- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
- United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR)
- United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)
- United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR)
- United Nations Volunteers
- Universal Postal Union (UPU)
- UNplus
- US Army Natick Soldier RD&E Center - Combat Feeding Directorate (DFAS)
- US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- US Dept of Homeland Security (DHS)
- US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- US Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
- USAID Office of Transitional Initiatives
- USDA Agricultural Research Service - Eastern Regional Research Center (ARS-ERRC)
- USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
- Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB)
- World AIDS Day (WAD)
- World Alliance for Patient Safety (WHO)
- World Health Day (WHO)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA)
- World Trade Organization (WTO)
- World Urban Campaign (WUC)
- World Water Day (WHO)
NGO & PPP
Non-governmental organizations, other civil society organizations, as well as private-public partnerships that RSI has either served or partnered with:
Â
- 4TRANSIT Joint Venture
- Air and Waste Management Association (AWSA)
- Aluminium REACH Consortium (ARC)
- America Frozen Food Institute (AFFI)
- America Water Works Association (AWWA)
- Americal Chemistry Council (ACC)
- American Blood Centers
- American Cancer Society
- American Childhood Cancer Organization
- BioVision - World Life Sciences Forum
- Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI)
- Bureau de Normalization du Quebec
- Canadian Blood Services (CBS)
- Canadian Cattlemen's Association
- Canadian Climate Forum (CCF)
- Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI)
- Canadian Gas Association (CGA)
- Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC)
- Canadian Standards Association (CSA)
- Cancer Care Ontario (CCO)
- Center for Product Safety (CPS)
- Centre for Public Management
- Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics
- Children's National Medical Center
- Clarity Healthcare
- Clean Air Partnership
- Climate Risk Institute (CRI)
- Clinton Foundation
- College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta
- Conceptis Inc (WebMD)
- Council of Canadian Academies
- Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA)
- Ecumenical Loan Funds For Human Development (ECLOF)
- Europa Donna, The European Breast Cancer Coalition
- European Aluminum Association (EAA)
- Fonterra Co-Operative Group
- Franciscans International (FI)
- Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
- Global Forum for Health Research (GFHR)
- Global Movement for Children (GMC)
- GRACE GmbH - SASforREACH Consortium
- ICF International Inc. (ICF)
- Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté
- Institute for Safe Medical Practices (ISMP)
- Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences
- Institute of Food Research (IFR)
- International Aluminium Institute (IAI)
- International Bridges to Justice (IBJ)
- International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC)
- International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)
- International Copper Association (ICA)
- International Council on Mining and Metals Limited (ICMM)
- International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM)
- International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
- International Federation of University Women (IFUW)
- International Hospital Federation
- International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
- International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI)
- International Manganese Institute (IMnI)
- International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF)
- International Prevention Research Institute (IPRI)
- International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
- International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
- ISGlobal Barcelona Institute for Global Health
- Joint Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) Tof FAO/WHO
- Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN) UMD-FDA
- Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences
- Livestock Innovation Research Corporation (LRIC)
- Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
- Medicines Patent Pool (MPP)
- Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation, and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO)
- Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA)
- National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
- National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- National Pork Board
- Netherlands Cancer Institute
- Northern Climate Exchange (NCE)
- Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO)
- Oak foundation
- Ontario Power Generation (OPG)
- Ontario Regional Climate Change Consortium (ORCCC)
- Organization of African First Ladies Against AIDS (OAFLA)
- PregMedic
- Public Services International (PSI)
- Radiation Effects Research Foundation
- Ramsar convention on wetlands
- Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
- RTI International
- Science and Technology Center in Ukraine
- Small Arms Survey
- Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)
- South Carolina College of Pharmacy
- Standards Council of Canada (SCC)
- Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate ENSI
- The Aluminum Association (AA)
- Toronto Community Housing (TCH)
- Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment
- Trade Union Advisory Committee
- Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)
- Union Network International (UNI)
- WaterSMART Solutions Ltd
- World AIDS Campaign (WAC)
- World Council of Churches (WCC)
- World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM)
- World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF International)
- World YWCA Young Women's Christian Association
Business
Companies both large and small:Â
- A-Maps Environmental Inc.
- AECOM Canada Limited
- Ajilon Consulting
- Arcelor
- Associated Engineering Alberta Ltd. (ASENG)
- BGC Engineering Inc.
- BMW Gmbh
- Bull Hausser and Tupper LLC
- Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz
- Canadian National (CN)
- Coca Cola Company
- Copp Clark Ltd.
- Crawford and Company Canada Inc
- CRDF Global
- Dillon Consulting Limited
- Dow Chemical Company
- Emdata Co. Ltd.
- Emmons & Olivier Resources Canada Inc. (EOR)
- Engineers Canada
- ESSA Technologies Ltd.
- Federated Press
- FNC Technology Co., Ltd.
- Geneva International Airport
- Hatch Limited
- Helmholtz Zentrum München
- Hydro Ottawa
- ICF International
- Intersol Group Ltd.
- Intertek Health Sciences Inc.
- IRIS Legal
- Japan Nus Company Ltd.
- King & Spalding
- Lakind Associates LLC
- Lansdowne Technologies
- Lapointe Engineering Ltd
- Lockheed Martin
- Lumina Decision Systems
- Manulife Financial Real Estate
- MARS Foods (China) Co. Ltd.
- Matrix Solutions Inc
- McCague Borlack LLP
- McCarthy Tetrault LLP
- Meat and Livestock Australia
- MITACS
- Mondelēz International
- Morrison Hershfield
- Moto Internationale
- Motosport Plus
- Nodelcorp Consulting Inc
- NORR
- Novel Futures Corporation
- NTNU Regnskapsseksjonen
- Phillips & Paolicelli LLP (P2Law)
- Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC)
- Querencia Partners Ltd.
- R.V. Anderson Associates Ltd
- Restaino Law Firm
- Rio Tinto
- RWDI Air Inc
- Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)
- Social and Scientific Systems, Inc
- Stantec Consulting Ltd.
- Summit Toxicology LLP
- TetraTech Inc.
- Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited
- Torys LLP
- TriEdge & Associates
- Unilever
- Versar, Inc.
- WSP
- WSPA-Maps Environmental Inc.
Academia
Universities and research institutes that RSI has served or partnered with:
- Carleton University
- Dankook University
- Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal Â
- George Washington UniversityÂ
- Harvard University Â
- International Prevention Research Institute (IPRI)
- International University of Health and Welfare, Tochigi, Japan
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
- Keio UniversityÂ
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- McGill University
- McLaughlin Centre for Population Health
- Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane
- Nagasaki University
- Oak Ridge Associated UniversitiesÂ
- Ottawa Hospital Research InstituteÂ
- Rutgers University
- Trent UniversityÂ
- Universitätsmedizin Greifswald
- Université de MontréalÂ
- University of Alberta
- University of Bergen
- University of Calgary
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California, San Francisco
- University of Guelph
- University of KoreaÂ
- University of Manchester
- University of Maryland
- University of Melbourne
- University of Minnesota
- University of OttawaÂ
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Prince Edward Island
- University of Southern California
- University of TasmaniaÂ
- University of Toronto
- University of Washington
- University of Windsor
- Vanderbilt University
- Yukon College
The list of organizations, companies, and governments above in no way denotes or implies support or endorsement by these entities. The list is intended as an indication of the breadth of work led and undertaken by Risk Sciences International staff.
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