Analysis of the advantages and the disadvantages of

for risk analysis

Examples of key foreign countries indicate that there is no uniform direction regarding the consolidation or separation of the organizational systems for risk assessment and risk management; each country has its own system suitable for its political and economic circumstances.

Standards to compare the advantages and the disadvantages of the consolidated system and the separate system for food risk assessment and management, have been established in this study.

<Table 17> presents five items–credibility of policies, expertise level of the function to implement polices (objectivity), efficiency, connectivity and feasibility–as standards to compare the advantages and the disadvantages of the food risk assessment and management systems.

〈Table 17〉Standards to analyze the advantages and the disadvantages of organizational systems

Evaluation basis Explanation of concepts

Credibility (transparency) Trust of the public in decision-making process and result

Expertise level

(objectivity and scientific validity)

The expertise level of the function to perform each policy area

Efficiency The level of administrative costs for operation Connectivity Connectivity of the operation of each policy area Feasibility The political, administrative and technical

feasibility of alternatives

Classification Organizational separation Functional separation Organizational consolidation

Characteristics - Establishes departments

or bodies in charge of coordination to ensure cooperation under the supervision of risk management - Improved transparency

and fairness of risk assessment

- No coordination with the administrative authorities - Improves transparency

by disclosing details of assessment result along with recommendations - Sufficient application of

science-based views to policy decision-making

- Improved objectivity and effectiveness - Lower administrative

costs than complete separation

- Improved consistency in policy

decision-making - Quick response

Disadvantages

- Insufficient organic connection among relevant organizations - Potential increase of

administrative costs

- Insufficient consistency in policy management and difficulties in making quick response - Unclear division of

responsibilities for policies

- Insufficient application of science-based views to policy

<Table 18> shows the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of food risk assessment and management systems.

〈Table 18〉Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of each organizational system

The advantages of the organizational separation system are improved objectivity and transparency achieved by securing the independence of risk assessment bodies.

However, it has disadvantages of insufficient organic

The Status of the Organizational System for Food Risk Analysis in Korea and Tasks

Classification Organizational separation Functional separation Organizational consolidation

Credibility ◎ ○ △

Expertise level ◎ ◎ ○

Efficiency △ ○ ◎

Connectivity △ ○ ◎

Feasibility △ ◎ ○

connection among relevant organizations and increased administrative costs. The organizational consolidation system has advantages and disadvantages contrasting to those of the organizational separation system. While its advantages are improved consistency and quickness in policy decision-making, its disadvantages are the possibilities of lower transparency and fairness. Lastly, the functional separation system is in between the organizational separation system and the organizational consolidation system, and it is deemed that it has both the advantages and disadvantages of the two systems at the same time. The system can secure transparency and fairness in risk assessment to some degree and reduce administrative costs to some extent. On the other hand, it has disadvantages of insufficient management consistency and difficulties in making quick responses.

<Table 19> shows analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of each system based on the detailed standards for comparison.

〈Table 19〉Analysis of each system based on the evaluation standards for organizational systems

Note: ◎ Strong, ○ Somewhat strong, △ Weak

CHAPTER 4 Improvement Methods for the Organizational and Operational

Systems of Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Korea

While the organizational separation system has higher credibility and expertise level to implement policies because independent bodies conduct risk assessment, running multiple organizations could lead to higher administrative costs and lack of connectivity among separate organizations. Particularly given the unique characteristics of the bureaucratic organizations of Korea, which have strong hierarchical rules, it is impossible to completely separate risk assessment bodies from risk management bodies. It would be better to give the authority for risk assessment to independent departments composed of experts in order to ensure transparent and fair assessment free from external coercion.

The organizational consolidation system has advantages in efficiency and connectivity, along with strength in expertise level and feasibility to some extent; but it has substantial disadvantages in credibility. In addition, additional administrative costs incurred by running multiple organizations can be reduced, and executing both functions would lead to improved connectivity between each operation. While some might say that consolidation of the two functions would lead to lower level of expertise to implement policy operation, a fair level of expertise would be secured from the advanced technical ability and system of the risk assessment operation of Korea.

When it comes to feasibility, given the circumstances of Korea, the consolidation system is little more feasible than the complete separation system, but it is somewhat less feasible than the functional separation system.

It is deemed that the functional separation system has considerable advantages in level of expertise and feasibility, along with some advantages in terms of credibility, efficiency

The Status of the Organizational System for Food Risk Analysis in Korea and Tasks

and connectivity. Since the system doesn’t require additional administrative procedures or changes in organizational structure, it is more feasible than other alternatives that require extra changes. Though not completely separated, it guarantees a fair level of expertise because independence is secured for risk assessment to some extent. Given independence is directly related to the trust of the public, this system has advantages also in this aspect.

Thus, the appropriate option would be to put active efforts into improving the operational system to overcome its weakness, while maintaining the functional separation system as the risk assessment and management system.

The analysis of each system based on the evaluation standards indicates that the organizational separation system is the best option in terms of credibility; the organizational separation and the functional separation systems are the best choices when it comes to the level of expertise; the organizational consolidation system is better than others in terms of efficiency and connectivity; and lastly the functional separation system is the best one in terms of feasibility.

When time is considered to assess the efficiency of each system, it is deemed reasonable to maintain the functional separation system in the short term because it has higher feasibility and advantages in terms of credibility, efficiency and connectivity to some degree. On the other hand, in the mid and long term, it would be better to solidify the status of the organizational separation system while setting up institutional tools to secure efficiency and connectivity, or to move towards the organizational consolidation system while establishing institutional tools to secure credibility, in

CHAPTER 4 Improvement Methods for the Organizational and Operational

Systems of Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Korea

accordance with the recommendations of the Codex.

In summary, the analysis of the characteristics of each system based on the evaluation standards indicate that it is required to make active efforts to overcome the weakness of the system while maintaining the current functional separation system of Korea. Based on this assumption, the following chapter is to propose methods to build effective risk assessment and risk management systems.

C. Organizational systems

1) Improvement method in the short term

While choosing the most appropriate organizational system out of the consolidated system, the functional separation system and the separation system is important for effective food risk assessment and risk management, the reality is that changing the organizational system doesn’t guarantee an effective management system because the food safety management system and the environment and circumstances around food vary from country to country.

As shown in <Table 20>, the consumer confidence of a country - or consumer concern - in the food safety reflects the food safety level of the country. While the consumer confidence of Korea increased from 40% in 2008 to 60.7% in 2010, the consumer concern level of Japan almost doubled in 2009 from 43.4% in 2005 although it implemented wide-ranging organizational restructure by establishing an independent risk assessment body led by the private sector and the Consumer Affairs Agency in 2009. This suggests

The Status of the Organizational System for Food Risk Analysis in Korea and Tasks

that changing organizational systems does not guarantee improvement of the public trust in food safety.

〈Table 20〉Consumer confidence in food safety

Classification 2005 2007 2008 2009 2010

The EU (England) (65²⁾) 55(64³⁾) - (64⁴⁾)

-The U.S. - - 81⁵⁾ -

-Japan (Consumer

concern level¹⁾) 43.4 57.3 50.9 76.8 68.1

Korea - - 40⁵⁾ - 60.7⁶⁾

Note: 1) The consumer concern level over food safety is measured on a scale of one to five: very concerned, relatively very concerned, OK, relatively little concern and very little concern. And the number in the table is the total of the proportion of those who chose “very concerned”

and those who chose “relatively very concerned.” Since the result of the 2008 Internet survey used a different survey method, the result of the general survey announced in 2008 was used.

Data: 1) http://www.fsc.go.jp/monitor/2006moni-kadaihoukoku-gaiyou.pdf, http://www.fsc.go.jp/monitor/2208moni-kadaihoukoku-gaiyou.pdf, 2) http://www.food.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/2006/mar/cas2005ukpressregion 3) Food: from farm to fork statistics, Eurostat Pocketbooks, 2008 4) http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2009/oct/tracker

5) Request to dispose of the result of auditing – Status of food safety management-, 2010 6) 2010 Result of survey on the society by the Statistics Korea, 2010

And, unlike Korea and Japan, in the case of England which has a consolidated system, there is no substantial fluctuation in the consumer confidence in food safety each year despite the occurrence of food safety-related incidents.

Thus, under the multilateral food safety management system of Korea, it is required to make policy-related efforts to overcome the weakness of the system caused by the lack of a cooperative operation system between departments and between the risk assessment and risk management functions while maintaining the current functional separation system, rather than instituting radical changes for the risk assessment and management systems. That is, due to the multilateral food safety management system, strengthening the cooperative operational systems is required not only between the risk assessors and the risk managers but also

CHAPTER 4 Improvement Methods for the Organizational and Operational

Systems of Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Korea

between the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Korea Food and Drug Administration. In order to effectively execute this, the following improvements need to be made for the operational system and it is important to strategically rearrange various tasks according to priority.

○ Direction of improvement for the relationship between risk assessors and risk managers

－ Active mutual risk communication

－ Joint deliberation of risk assessment result

－ Mutual exchange of experts

○ Direction of improvement for the relationship between relevant departments

－ Mutual risk communication

－ Build a system for joint task development and technical cooperation

－ Establishment of consultative bodies among working level groups and setting up systems for cooperative operation

－ Joint deliberation or external deliberation of risk assessment result

－ Build and run a jointly-managed database of data and results required for risk assessment

－ Mutual exchange of experts

Particularly, software-oriented approaches, such as building and running a jointly-managed database of data and results required for risk assessment, need to be prioritized. In this case, all organizations involved in risk assessment and risk

The Status of the Organizational System for Food Risk Analysis in Korea and Tasks

management need to participate in building the database, and a joint operation body could be established along the way if necessary. In addition, the database needs to provide free access for all organizations to share information.

In short, it is deemed that it would be more time-saving and efficient to carry out improvement of the operational system than to implement radical changes of the whole organizational system which could bring confusions in terms of the budget and the organizational structure.

The recommendations of the Codex are also in alignment with this approach: functional separation would be a better option and if the two functions need to be performed by the same organization due to the circumstances around food safety, the key areas of risk assessment should be conducted independently. This recommendation clearly reflects the importance of the operational aspect.

2) Improvement method in the mid- and long-term

It is deemed that it would be possible to consolidate the risk assessment sections into a separate unified body in the mid-and long-term while restructuring the system, depending on the direction of the changes in the food safety management system of Korea.

As the risk assessment function should be performed based on scientific expertise, it is expected that the expertise level of the unified system will be improved to establish standard evaluation criteria and operational procedures for every subject, item and compound.

In addition, if a database is built–one of the improvement

CHAPTER 4 Improvement Methods for the Organizational and Operational

Systems of Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Korea

methods for the short-term–information sharing–is facilitated, and an agency specializing in risk assessment is established, expanding the agency to incorporate risk assessment organizations would substantially contribute to improving the efficiency and expertise level of the operation. In other words, it would be desirable to push ahead with the short-term improvement methods with a goal to implement the mid- and long-term improvement methods.

One example is that the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries recently announced a plan to consolidate the National Veterinary Research & Quarantine Service, the National Plant Quarantine Service and the National Fisheries Products Quality Inspection Service into a

“agricultural and marine products quarantine & inspection body” The plan, which is in the pipeline, could provide a critical opportunity to improve the capability of risk assessment. It was announced in the second half of 2010 that the new quarantine institution would consolidate the current three organizations, 3 departments, 27 divisions, 2 cultivation management, 2 post-entry quarantine stations, 24 local branches and 33 offices into regional centers to improve the efficiency of on-site operation, and while the personnel of the three organizations would be maintained, the surplus workforce after the consolidation would be deployed to the areas in need of reinforcement including risk assessment, marine products, new hazardous substances, quarantine sites, etc. As the National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation has expertise in human health risk assessment of food, it will be able to play important roles in improving the risk assessment function that has been

The Status of the Organizational System for Food Risk Analysis in Korea and Tasks

Outstanding issues in Korea Improvement methods

◦ Standardization of risk assessment and improvement of its level

- As the subject and the application scope (human body and environment) vary depending on the organization, the expertise level for risk assessment can also vary.

- Objective review is required for the risk assessment methods and procedures of each organization.

◦ Build a cooperative system expertise of other organizations

◦ Difficulties in providing equal training under the multilateral food safety management system

- As the experience in risk assessment is insufficient, agencies or departments in charge of risk assessment guidelines and detailed manuals

◦ Establish training organizations or institutions

- Since risk assessment that belongs to the research operation has clear goals, entrusting training to organizations with expertise or incorporating training institutions could be an option.

recognized as the weak area, together with the consolidated agency of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries.

In addition, methods for the collaboration of the two organizations would present a new direction for the consolidated organizational system of risk assessment.

D. Operational system

<Table 21> shows the outstanding issues and improvement methods for the organizational systems for risk assessment and risk management of Korea. While the current level of human health risk assessment is in compliance with the regulations and the procedures of foreign countries, the managerial system for the assessment result and related data is neither well-established nor well-organized.

The table below presents improvement methods with a focus on the operational systems that need to be changed under the multilateral food safety management system.

〈Table 21〉Outstanding issues in Korea and improvement methods

Outstanding issues in Korea Improvement methods training need to be established in

order to nurture experts.

- Expansion of training programs of the Risk Prevention Policy Bureau of the Korea Food and Drug Administration into a research institute specializing in training like the JIFSAN of the U.S. could be an concerns and restoring credibility - Strengthening the ability to respond to

emergencies

◦ Improvement and revitalization of risk communication

- Build information communication channels to exchange risk information and opinions of each risk assessment and management body

- Establishment of departments in charge of risk information exchange at each organization and active information sharing

◦ Disclosing and sharing risk assessment data contamination investigation data and monitoring data need to be sufficiently explained so that the public as well as experts can understand and accept assessment result, and those data need to be disclosed in principle.

K I H A S

05

Conclusion and Policy

Suggestion

CHAPTER 5 Conclusion and Policy Suggestion

This study is aimed at looking into and analyzing the risk assessment and risk management systems of Korea and foreign countries and exploring their implications, in order to find the appropriate food risk assessment and management methods for Korea. To this end, this study has presented several improvement methods for the risk analysis organizations and operational systems based on the analysis of international bodies such as the Codex, the status of key foreign countries such as the U.S., Japan, the EU and Germany, and the opinions of government officials and experts from research institutes and the industry. In the short term, it would be desirable to focus on strengthening the cooperative system among relevant agencies, and thus, improving the efficiency of the operational system while maintaining the current system under the multilateral food safety management system of Korea, rather than implementing radical changes for the organizational systems for risk assessment and risk management. In the mid- and long-term, it is recommended that the risk assessment functions divided among different organizations according to the food item should be consolidated into a separate organization depending on the direction of the changes in

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