소셜빅데이터 분석을 위한 식품안전 온톨로지 구축

배지영 ( Ji Young Bae ),조미숙 ( Mi Sook Cho ) 한국보건정보통계학회 2016 보건정보통계학회지 Vol.41 No.3

Objectives: Anxiety of citizens on food safety is relatively high. Groundless anxiety on food could build mistaken dietary culture. Therefore, there needs to be risk communication based on verification for recognition of citizens on food safety. As existing questionnaire method or recognition survey via FGI have various limits, recognition survey through internet big data is certainly necessary. Object of this study is to develop food safety ontology which is surely necessary for big data analysis on food safety. Methods: In this study, all keywords of accidents relevant to food safety were derived from 62 prec-edent studies in 5 sectors such as food safety policies, food hygiene, recognition on food safety, activities relevant to food safety, the media as well as food gadgets(Food Journal) from 2011 to 2014. Those keywords were categorized and classified according to 5 phases which were modified and supple-mented from its original development methodology named ‘Ontology Development 101’ in order to develop ontology. Results: Keywords related to food safety were classified into high classes including ‘Preventive factors’, ‘Generating factors’, ‘Consequence factors’, ‘Social relationship factors’ after clas-sification for subjects with their common attributes. These high classes were categorized into middle class 1, middle class 2 and small class in order to develop final ontology. Conclusions: As food safety is directly connected with health of citizens, both big data research on it and development of ontol-ogy which is a research tool necessary for big data analysis is essential. Therefore, this research was significant thanks to development of ontology for food safety necessary for further various big data analysis on food safety at the first time.

DACUM(Developing A Curriculum)을 이용한 식품 안전 전문가 직무 분석

송태희 ( Tae Hee Song ) 한국식품영양학회 2009 韓國食品營養學會誌 Vol.22 No.1

The purpose of this study was to define the job description for food safety specialist, and to describe the duties and tasks of the job based on the detailed analysis of specific food safety work performed by dietitians. The job analysis was 8 professional panels and a Developing A Curriculum(DACUM) facilitator. The research was done in order to fully define the task element, process, and sequence of a food specialist and was completed by DACUM analysis. The job definition of food safety specialist is one who manages food safety through analysis, safety evaluation, inspection, and hazard blocking in all processes related to the purchase, distribution, storage, manufacture, and marketing of foods and food materials. The job description on the DACUM research chart for food safety specialist contained 7 duties and 79 tasks. Its duties were defined as the specific and independent work of a food safety specialist, and were composed of 7 duties, i.e. hazard analysis of foods and related affairs, safety evaluation of purchased food materials, safety management of food/food materials distribution/storage, safety management of food manufacture, safety examination of food marketing, administration affairs on food safety, and self-development. For the future, this study suggests a curriculum, that shall be basis of program planning and food safety operation for subjects within many schools.

우리나라 식품안전보건지표를 활용한 사례연구: 다양한 통합지수 산출을 통한 주요 지표 확인 및 사회경제적 지위와의 상관성 파악

최지혜,변가람,이종태 한국식품위생안전성학회 2015 한국식품위생안전성학회지 Vol.30 No.3

Food-Health indicators have been developed and utilized internationally in the ‘Food’ domain of environment and health indicators. In Korea, however, Food Safety Health Indicators which are in the introductory stage had been developed separately from Environmental Health Indicators. The aim of the current study is to suggest feasible applications of the domestic Food Safety Health Indicators as a case study. We introduced 3 possible applications which are as follows: 1) production of two types of Integrated Food Safety Health Index; 2) conduction of correlation analysis between the Integrated Food Safety Health Index and Food Safety Health Indicators; 3) conduction of regression analysis to evaluate the relationship between the Integrated Food Safety Health Index and socioeconomic status. As a result, we provided the calculated Integrated Food Safety Health Index Ⅰ and Integrated Food Safety Health Index Ⅱ, which represents the regional food safety level in relative and absolute terms, respectively. Integrated Food Safety Health IndexⅠwas significantly correlated with the outbreaks of food-borne diseases (caused by Campylobacter jejuni, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella spp. and unknown cause) and incidence of E.coli infections. Integrated Food Safety Health Index Ⅱ significantly decreased as the proportion of foreigners and women increased, and increased as the population density increased. Utilization of such Integrated Food Safety Health Indicators may be helpful in understanding the overall domestic food safety level and identifying the indicators which must be considered with priorities to enhance the food safety levels regionally and domestically. Furthermore, analyzing the association between Integrated Food Safety Health Index and factors other than food safety could be useful in conducting risk management and identifying susceptible populations. Food Safety Health Indicators can be useful in other applications, and may serve as a supporting material in establishing or modifying policy plans to enhance food safety. Therefore, keen interests by researchers accompanied by further studies on food safety health indicators are needed.

청소년의 식품안전 관심수준에 따른 식품관련 건강인식과 식품표시 사항 이용실태- 2020년 식품소비행태조사 자료 이용 -

정현아,최선아,노정옥 동아시아식생활학회 2023 동아시아식생활학회지 Vol.33 No.6

. This study examined the health-related perception of food and the status of the use of food labeling according to the concerns on food safety in Korean adolescents. The data for 622 adolescents from the 2020 Consumption Behavior Survey for Food provided by the Korea Rural Economic Institute was analyzed. Approximately 36.5% of adolescents were concerned about food safety, while 52.1% reported moderate concerns, and 11.4% were unconcerned. Adolescents concerned about food safety had significantly higher perceptions about the quality of school food service (p<0.05), interest in food origin (p<0.01), and overall dietary satisfaction (p<0.01) than those not concerned about food safety. Adolescents concerned about food safety recognized milk, vegetables, and fruits as healthy foods and alcohol as the most unhealthy food. Approximately 21.0% of adolescents with above-moderate food safety concerns checked the food labeling when purchasing processed foods, but 75.2% of adolescents unconcerned about food safety did not check food labeling (p<0.001). Adolescents concerned about food safety checked the expiration date, price, and country of origin during purchase. Adolescents concerned about food safety had significantly higher satisfaction and reliability in food labeling than those not concerned about food safety (p<0.001). In conclusion, practical school education is needed to enhance food safety, understand food labeling, and encourage adolescents to choose processed foods properly.

경기도 지역 대학생의 식품 안전성에 대한 태도와 지식 및 행동 분석

김지명,홍승희 한국식품위생안전성학회 2018 한국식품위생안전성학회지 Vol.33 No.6

The purpose of this study was to investigate food safety awareness, knowledge, and behavior in college students, to provide basic data for the increase in food safety awareness. Data were collected from 252 college students in Gyeonggi region, using a self-administered questionnaire. In results of concern about food safety, subjects responded 3.48 of 5.00 and have knowledge about food safety education revealing significantly higher awareness and concern than subjects without knowledge about food safety education. Food safety awareness of distributed food was 2.55, considered unsafe. Among reasons in perceiving food as unsafe, 62.3% of subjects expressed distrust about safety relative to food production. As for risk factors relative to food safety, subjects responded that the highest risk factor was food additives(2.35), followed by heavy metal(2.38), and endocrine disrupters(2.38). Correlation analysis resulting in risk factors for food had positive correlation with each other, heavy metal revealed highest correlation with pesticide residue(r=0.674), than with endocrine disrupters(r=0.672). Also, genetically modified food revealed high correlation with radiation irradiated food. Regression analysis demonstrated that concern about food safety significantly influenced intention to participate in food safety education. Mean 63.5% of subjects correctly answered in food safety knowledge items. The item ‘the heavy metals are contaminated the most in the roots of vegetables’ showed the lowest correct answer rate(38.1%). In food safety behavior, the item ‘always wash hands before handling food and meal’ showed 3.85, and subjects have experience in food safety eduction responded significantly higher than without experience in food safety. The most unfulfilled behavior was behavior of frozen food thaw at room temperature. Taken together, students recognize that the distributed foods are unsafe, and students have experience in food safety eduction showed higher knowledge and keeping behavior compared to without experience in food safety eduction. Therefore, systematic education using correct and objective data are required to reduce the anxiety about food safety.

가정간편식 식품 제조업체의 식품안전문화 평가

조승용,석다솜 한국식품위생안전성학회 2019 한국식품위생안전성학회지 Vol.34 No.4

Of great importance in food safety culture are the values of an organization regarding food safety that combine the human and material requirements needed to produce safe and hygienic foods. In recent years, efforts have been made to improve the level of implementation of food safety management systems by improving certain cultural elements of food safety. This study investigated the current state of food safety culture in the HMR manufacturing sector. An anonymous survey of 46 HMR manufacturers of various sizes was conducted to evaluate the implementation status of HACCP prerequisite program and food safety culture. The perceived importance of food safety culture factors and their performance were also surveyed. Employees of HMR manufacturers who participated in this survey recognized that the participation of employees and leadership was the most important factor in ensuring food safety. Smaller enterprises are less aware of the importance of such organizational culture. The survey shows that food safety culture indicators in large companies are generally higher than those of small and medium enterprises. Especially, the manager's level of commitment to food safety, resources input, and education and training was significantly higher than that found at small companies (p=0.005). Among the food safety culture evaluation factors, it was found that education and training had significant influence on HACCP prerequisite program performance. Continued employee education and training on food safety and hygiene are important for HMR manufacturers to achieve HACCP certification standards.

경북지역 고등학생의 식품 안전성에 대한 지식 및 행동 분석

김은정,김미라,김효정 한국가정과교육학회 2009 한국가정과교육학회지 Vol.21 No.3

This study assessed the levels of knowledge and behavior about food safety, the factors influencing them and the causal relationship between them. The data were collected from 297 high school students in Gyeongbuk region by the self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of closed-end questions regarding each respondent's characteristics such as sex and grade, recognition on food safety, concern about hazardous elements towards foods and knowledge and behavior about food safety. The results of this study were as follows. Both levels of knowledge and behavior about food safety were not particularly high. The factors affecting the level of knowledge about food safety were mother's age and concern about hazardous elements towards foods. Grade, father's educational level, concern about hazardous elements towards foods, and the level of knowledge about food safety influenced the level of behavior about food safety. The results of the path analysis showed that grade and father's educational level directly affected the level of behavior about food safety. In addition, concern about hazardous elements towards foods had direct and indirect effect on the level of behavior about food safety. On the other hand, the level of knowledge about food safety had an direct influence on the level of behavior about food safety. 본 연구는 식품 안전성 확보를 위한 교육 프로그램 개발에 기초자료를 제공하기 위하여 경북지역의 고등학생을 대상으로 하여 식품 안전성에 대한 지식 및 행동 수준을 살펴보고 각각에 영향을 미치는 변수들을 파악하며 경로모형을 통해 식품 안전성에 대한 지식과 행동 간의 인과관계를 살펴보았다. 본 연구의 자료는 경북지역에 재학 중인 고등학생을 대상으로 설문지를 통해 수집되었으며, 총 297부를 최종 분석자료로 이용하였다. 수집된 자료는 SPSS Windows V. 14.0 프로그램을 이용하여 빈도분석, Cronbach's alpha, Pearson의 적률상관분석, 회귀분석, 경로분석을 실시하였다. 연구 결과, 식품 안전성에 대한 지식 정답률은 평균이 63.1%이었으며, 3개의 영역으로 구분하여 정답률을 살펴본 결과 ‘식품의 구입 및 취급’, ‘식품의 보관 및 저장’, ‘식중독 및 식품오염’ 순으로 정답률이 높았다. 회귀분석을 통해 식품 안전성에 대한 지식에 영향을 미치는 변수를 살펴본 결과, 어머니 연령, 식품 위해요인에 대한 관심도가 유의하였다. 식품 안전성에 대한 행동의 평균은 5점 만점에 3.44점이었으며, 이를 100점 만점으로 환산했을 때 61.1점으로 지식 수준의 평균보다 조금 낮았다. 영역별 행동 점수를 살펴보면 ‘식품의 보관’, ‘식품의 섭취’, ‘식품의 구입 및 취급’ 순으로 평균값이 높았다. 식품 안전성에 대한 행동에 영향을 미치는 변수를 살펴보기 위해 회귀분석을 실시한 결과, 학년, 아버지 교육 수준, 식품 위해요인에 대한 관심도, 식품 안전성에 대한 지식이 유의한 것으로 나타났다. 식품 안전성에 대한 행동에 영향을 미치는 제 변수들 간의 인과관계를 살펴보기 위하여 경로분석을 한 결과 식품 안전성에 대한 지식에는 식품 위해요인에 대한 관심도가 유의한 변수로 나타났고, 식품 안전성에 대한 행동에는 학년(2학년), 학년(3학년), 아버지 교육 수준, 식품 위해요인에 대한 관심도, 식품 안전성에 대한 지식이 유의한 변수로 나타났다. 학년과 아버지 교육 수준은 식품 안전성에 대한 행동에 직접적인 영향요인으로 나타났으며 매개변수인 식품 안전성에 대한 지식은 독립적으로 식품 안전성에 대한 행동에 정적인 직접효과를 갖는 것으로 나타났다

식품안전관리제도의 구조와 동향에 대한 법제도적 검토

최승필(Seung-Pil Choi) 서울대학교 공익산업법센터 2014 경제규제와 법 Vol.7 No.1

오늘날 식품행정의 핵심은 안전에 귀착되고 있으며, 각국에서 주요 정책과제로 다루어지고 있다. 이는 식품안전이 국민의 생명 및 건강과 직결되는 과제이기 때문이다. 식품이란 의약품을 제외한 모든 음식물을 의미한다. 식품행정은 일반행정분야와 다른 일상성, 민감성, 유해성, 높은 이해갈등이라는 4가지 특징을 갖는다. 현행 식품안전관리 법제는 식품안전기본법과 식품위생법을 중심으로 하고 관련 법률로서 농수산물품질관리법, 축산물위생관리법 등 각 식품분야별 법률들로 구성된다. 최근 식품안전을 위한 규제의 핵심은 리스크의 통제이다. 이는 사전예방의 원칙으로 구체화되며, 사전예방의 원칙에 따라 허가, 검사, 사전적 기준 및 규격의 제시 등이 이루어진다. 식품안전규제의 특징은 법률상 재량권의 부여와 행정영역에서의 재량권의 확보이다. 이는 식품안전규제가 비교적 전문적인 영역에 속함에 따라 판단여지의 영역이 필요하며, 다양한 상황에 부합한 대응이 필요하기 때문이다. 재량영역의 확보는 행정권의 개입과 밀접한 관련을 지니고 있다. 행정청의 개입이 과도할 경우 직업영위의 자유를 침해함과 동시에 시장의 자율적 매카니즘을 저해할 수 있다. 그러나 행정청의 개입의무가 인정되는 상황임에도 불구하고 부작위할 경우 국가배상책임이 문제될 수 있다. 개입여부에 대한 법적인 판단기준으로 제시될 수 있는 것은 공익과 사익간의 비교형량이며, 개입수단 면에서는 최소침해와 수단의 적합성등이 충족되어야 한다. 행정청의 개입수단은 허가, 검사, 폐기, 허가취소 등이 있다. 수입식품에 대한 규제는 최근 식품안전관리의 주요한 이슈이다. 수입식품에 대해서는 대부분 통관과정에서 안전성 검사가 이루어지고 있으나, 안전성을 보장하기에는 미흡하다는 지적이 제기되고 있다. 따라서 현지국의 생산단계에서부터 유통까지 일련의 과정에 미치는 새로운 안전관리기제가 필요하다. 한편, 식품에 대한 과대광고 역시 안전관리의 한 영역에서 중요한 의미를 갖는다. 식품은 농산물, 수산물, 축산물 등 다양한 영역을 모두 포괄함에 따라 관련 규제의 근거법령 역시 다양하며, 이를 주관하는 부처 역시 다양하다. 그러나 식품의 섭취의 과정에서는 모든 식품분야가 통합된다는 점, 그리고 각 부처별 권한의 분산은 식품위해상황에 대한 효율적 대처가 불가능하다는 문제가 지속적으로 제기되고 있다. 그러나 통합을 하기에는 부처간 이해관계가 첨예화되어 있다는 점에서 통합이 용이하지는 않다. 한국의 경우 2013년 신정부의 출범과 동시에 식품관련 법률의 소관을 대부분 새롭게 확대 개편된 국무총리실 소속식품의약품안전처로 일원화하였다. 식품분야에서 소비자에 의한 행정참여가 중요한 이슈로 제기되고 있다. 소비자 스스로가 소비자 보호에 직접 참여함으로써 행정주도적 안전관리에 민간주도적 안전관리가 혼합되고 있다. 소비자 참여를 위해서는 식품안전에 관한 정보의 비대칭성을 해소할 필요가 있다. 이를 위해서는 식품관련 행정청이 보유하고 있는 정보의 공개가 전제가 되어야 한다. 이를 반영하여 현행 식품안전기본법에서는 행정청이 보유하고 있는 정보의 공개범위를 대폭 확대하였다. 이와 같은 정보공개를 바탕으로 소비자가 직접 참여하는 제도로서 소비자가 특정영업자 또는 식품에 대해 행정청에 검사실시를 요청할 수 있다. 또한 소비자가 행정청의 위생점검에 참여하는 제도도 마련되어 있다. 오늘날 식품의 수입은 보편화된 현상이다. 그러나 수입식품의 경우 국내와 달리 안전관리에 지역적, 제도적 한계가 있다. 이를 해결하기 위해서는 식품을 수출하고 수입하는 국가간 강화된 협력체제가 요구된다. 구체적인 방안으로는 현지 생산지에 대한 실사공조, 정보의 공유와 교류 나아가 공동검사, 상호인증 및 안전성에 대한 공동연구가 이루어져야 할 것이다. The core of food administration these days concludes to safety, which is dealt as a main policy task in various countries. This is because food safety is directly connected to the lives and health of citizens. Food includes all things people eat except for medicine or drugs. Food administration exhibits four characteristics that differ from general administrative sectors, which are commonness, sensitiveness, harmfulness, and high conflict of interests. The legislative system of food safety control in Korea is centered on the Framework Act on Food Safety and Food Sanitation Act, and is composed of related laws in each food sector such as the Agricultural and Marine Products Quality Control Act and Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act. The core of food safety regulations these days is risk control. This is crystallized into the advanced prevention principle, and pursuant to such principle, activities such as permission, inspection, and proposal of advanced criteria and standards are conducted. The two characteristics of food safety control are the grant of discretionary power based on law and the procurement of discretionary power in the administrative sector. This is because food safety regulations require room for judgment as it pertains to a relatively specialized area, and also require measures conforming to various situations. However, abuse of deviation by exercise of excessive discretionary power may result in illegality. Procurement of areas for discretionary power is closely related with the intervention by administrative power. When there is excessive intervention by an administrative agency, freedom of employment activities may be infringed while hindering the self-regulating mechanism of the market at the same time. However, failure by an administrative agency to exercise its obligation to intervene even when such obligation is acknowledged may give rise to the issue of state compensation. In the end, the standard that may be suggested as the legal standard for determining whether to intervene is balance between public and private interests, and infringement should be minimized and a suitable method of infringement should be met regarding the methodology of intervention. The intervening methods by administrative agencies include permission, inspection, disposal, and cancellation of permission. Regulations on imported foods are a major issue in food safety control these days. Although safety inspection is conducted during customs, some criticize that such measures are insufficient to guarantee safety. Thus, a new safety control mechanism is required that affects the series of procedures, including the production stage at a local site and distribution. On the other hand, exaggerative advertisements on food also have an important meaning in the area of safety control. Since food comprehensively includes various sectors such as agricultural products, marine products, and livestock products, laws becoming the basis of relevant regulations and the agencies supervising such regulations accordingly are diverse. However, people constantly point out the fact that all food sectors are integrated in the process of the intake of food and the issue that dispersion of agencies disallows efficient measures against food danger. However, integration is not easy due to the intense conflict of interest between agencies. In Korea, with the start of the new administration in 2013, the control of food safety laws were mostly unified under the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, an agency under the newly expanded and reorganized Prime Minister’s Office. Administrative participation by consumers is being raised as an important issue in the food sector. Administration-led safety control is being mixed with privately-led safety control as consumers directly participate to protect their own interests. For consumer participation, there is a need to resolve the asymmetry of information on food safety. To resolve such a

Main Structure of Agro-food Safety Control System in Korea

( B. O. Lee ) 강원대학교 농업생명과학연구원(구 농업과학연구소) 2014 강원 농업생명환경연구 Vol.26 No.3

Ministry of Food and Drugs Safety (MFDS) encompasses all food safety policies and promotions. There are also several food safety related institutions, such as, NAQS (agricultural products safety inspection), KOFHAS and KOLPHAS (HACCP Certification), NFSI and KAPE (traceability system), QIA (quarantine and livestock epidemics prevention). Food Safety Basic Act and Food Sanitation Act are two major laws on food safety. Agricultural Products Quality Control Act, Livestock Products Sanitation Act, Environmentally-friendly Agriculture Fostering Act, Act on the Traceability of Cattle and Beef, etc. play an important role as well. Agro-food certification system includes Environmentally-friendly Agro-Livestock Products Certification, GAP, HACCP, and Traceability System. Environmentally-friendly Agricultural Products Certification is classified into organic, non-pesticide, and low-pesticide for agricultural products and organic and non-antibiotics for livestock products. To develop environmentally-friendly livestock industry, direct payment subsidies have paid since 2009. HACCP certification initiated from 1995 for food and from 1997 for livestock products. Mandatory HACCP in the slaughterhouses has been implemented since 2003. Beef traceability system initiated in 2008 by mandatory system. However, many issues are at hand to solve to improve food safety in Korea, such as, rational division of food safety costs among producers, consumers and the government, harmonization of closed HACCP and opened traceability system, enhancing precautionary food safety system, developing low cost safety control models for the smaller food operations.

EU식품법에 있어서 유럽식품안전청의 조직구조와 역할수행상의 문제

김두수 한국외국어대학교 국제지역연구센터 2010 국제지역연구 Vol.14 No.3

The European Food Safety Authority, which has legal personality, is established as an independent agency responsible for risk assessment and risk communication. The Authority consists of a management board, an executive director and his staff, an advisory forum, a scientific committee and scientific panels. Under the Regulation 178/2002, the Authority has following main functions. First, to provide independent scientific advice at the request of the European Commission, Member States of the EU, national food bodies of the Member States or the European Parliament to evaluate food safety risks. Second, collection and analysis of scientific data covering issues. Third, safety evaluations of dossiers put forward by industry for Union level approval of substances or processes such as additives, GMOs and novel foods. Fourth, identification of emerging food safety risks. Fifth, to support to the European Commission in cases of food safety crisis. Sixth, communication to the general public of its scientific advice and risk assessment. However, there are some issues which should be reviewed. First, Member States remain limited in the action that they can take at national level where a domestic food crisis occurs, with the consequence that parties should co-operate in an effort to clarify the contentious scientific issues. Second, it is still not clear how members of the Management Board or the Advisory Forum who are government civil servants will act in these bodies, but they must always act independently in the public interest. Third, there is in need of co-operation from Member States to identify emerging food safety risks in the food chain. Fourth, for the identification of emerging food safety risks, there is in need of co-operation between the Authority and national food bodies of the Member States. Fifth, the European Commission, concerned about losing any of its powers, specifies that it alone will remain responsible for the communication of risk management decisions even though they may be based on scientific opinions of the Authority, nevertheless the Authority's risk communication activities have to respect the European Commission’s risk communication about risk management decisions. Sixth, in an identified crisis, the European Commission is to set up a crisis unit, which is to be assisted by the Authority ‘if necessary’. These days, the issue of food safety and consumer protection has a supranational nature. which would not be a problem in only one country. Many countries knows that there's a necessity for international food safety network similar with the EU, so that the food safety and consumer protection through the Authority of the EU as a community has a important meaning for international society. 식품안전에 관한 높은 수준의 소비자보호를 목적으로 2002년 규칙 178/2002에 의하여 설립된 유럽식품안전청(EFSA)은 유럽위원회, 회원국, 국내식품기관 또는 유럽의회가 식품안전에 관한 자문을 요청하는 경우 식품안전의 위해성을 평가하여 이들에게 과학적 의견을 제시한다. 이를 위해 유럽식품안전청은 EU내에서의 식품안전을 모니터링하고, 유럽위원회의 식품안전정책을 보조하기 위하여 관련된 과학적 데이터를 수집하고 분석하는 임무를 수행한다. 또한 유럽식품안전청은 식품첨가물, 유기농 및 다이어트 등 특정 용도를 위한 식품, 유전자변형유기체, 신종식품에 대하여 안전성을 평가하고 최종 확인한다. 나아가 유럽식품안전청은 식품안전위기 또는 식품안전공포가 발생하는 경우 유럽위원회의 업무를 전반적으로 보조하는 역할을 수행한다. 이로서 유럽식품안전청은 과학적 자문과 위해성 평가의 내용을 일반 대중에게 통보하는 데에도 기여하게 된다. 그러나 유럽식품안전청은 국내식품기관들에 대하여 진정한 독립적 식품안전기구인지 또는 EU기관들과 회원국들에 대한 단순한 과학적 자문기관으로서의 보조적 성격에 지나지 않는 기구인지 등의 몇 가지 검토해야 할 문제가 제기된다고 할 수 있다. 첫째, 유럽식품안전청과 회원국 국내식품기관 간의 과학적 의견이 충돌할 수 있어 회원국대표로 구성되는 자문포럼을 활용할 필요가 있다. 둘째, EU회원국 정부의 공무원인 운영위원회 또는 자문포럼의 위원들의 독립적 지위가 손상될 우려가 있으나, 이 문제는 EU의 식품안전과 소비자보호라는 본질적 목적에 부합된 해당 전문가로서의 자질에 대한 것으로 보아야 할 것이다. 셋째, 유럽식품안전청의 역할수행의 공개와 투명성과 관련해서는 관련 규정을 충실히 이행하는 것이 중요하다고 할 수 있다. 넷째, 신종위해요소의 규명과 관련해서는 얼마나 실효성을 확보할 수 있느냐가 문제인데, 이는 유럽식품안전청과 회원국 간의 매개체 및 구심점 역할을 하는 자문포럼을 통한 협력의 네트워크를 활용함으로서 해결할 수 있을 것이다. 다섯째, 위해성 관리의 기초가 되는 과학적 의견의 준비에 대한 실질적 역할은 유럽식품안전청이 수행했음에도 불구하고, 그 위해성 관리는 유럽위원회가 권한을 행사하여 위해성 관리의 측면에서는 유럽위원회의 주된 역할로 인하여 유럽식품안전청의 역할이 제한된다는 점이다. 따라서 과학과 행정의 적절한 조화를 필요로 한다. 여섯째, 신속경보체제와 관련하여 유럽식품안전청은 유럽위원회의 필요에 의해 요청되는 경우에 한하여 과학적, 기술적 지원을 제공하고 있으나, 이는 유럽식품안전청의 역할수행의 탁월성과 전문성 및 독립성을 제한할 수 있으므로 개선되어야 할 것이다. 이처럼 유럽식품안전청은 역할수행상의 몇 가지 문제가 제기될 수 있다. 그러나 그럼에도 불구하고 유럽에서 실행되고 있는 유럽식품안전청의 역할은 식품안전과 소비자보호의 필요성이 점점 증대되고 있는 현대 국제사회의 식품안전네트워크에 중요한 의미를 부여하고 있다고 할 수 있다. 왜냐하면 오늘날 식품안전문제는 국경을 초월한 문제로서 지역 국제사회의 차원에서 그리고 보편적 국제사회의 차원에서 모두 관심 있게 다루어야 할 사안이기 때문이다.