3. Risk assessment

3.1 Assessment bodies

Risk assessment (a term which, now that it has been defined by European regulations, should be preferred to risk appraisal) is based on knowledge acquired in various disciplines: toxicology, analytical chemistry, microbiology, epidemiology, etc. It therefore requires expert appraisals. It therefore requires expert appraisals, which must necessarily be collective, multidisciplinary, subject to periodic review and conducted by bodies that ensure the independence of the experts.

• In France, the expert appraisal system was overhauled by the law of July 1 ^er 1998, which created the Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des aliments (Afssa). This replaced existing bodies, in...