1. Context: crisis of expertise

In a democratic country, the aim of a risk analysis system is to enable citizens to live in a society in which, on the one hand, the risks they are concerned about are perceived, recognized and effectively reduced by decision-makers to a socially accepted level, and, on the other hand, the risks they do not perceive are the subject of effective vigilance enabling them to be detected and citizens to be alerted early enough.

With this in mind, since the 1950s, most developed countries have set up expertise structures to analyze the various aspects of food safety linked to changes in food composition, manufacturing processes or production methods for agricultural raw materials. Until recently, these expert bodies carried out their risk analysis work according to a "standard" model, developed for the analysis of other technological risks, and whose characteristics and...