Capacity Building

IFoRAC helps governments, international organizations, laboratories, academic institutions and food-system actors develop the capability to transform evidence into transparent, practical and measurable decisions.

Our programs combine applied learning, technical mentoring, decision-support tools and institutional development so that partners can progressively internalize Food Decision Engineering.

From training individuals to strengthening decision systems.

Food-safety capacity is often approached primarily through technical courses. Scientific skills are essential, but they do not automatically create an effective decision system.

An organization also needs the capability to:

• Identify which decisions matter most
• Formulate clear and answerable decision questions
• Connect evidence from different sources
• Select fit-for-purpose assessment methods
• Characterize and communicate uncertainty
• Compare risk-management options and trade-offs
• Translate analysis into usable decision products
• Implement and monitor decisions
• Maintain tools and analytical workflows
• Learn from results and improve future decisions

The objective is not only to train people. It is to build a lasting organizational capability for making better decisions.

Develop the knowledge and practical skills required to assess risks, interpret evidence, compare options and communicate findings.

Enable multidisciplinary teams to work across risk assessment, surveillance, laboratories, economics, policy and implementation.

Establish repeatable workflows, governance arrangements, tools and responsibilities that connect evidence to decisions.

Strengthen cooperation, data exchange, technical networks and shared decision processes across institutions and countries.

The strongest programs connect all four levels rather than focusing exclusively on individual training.

Learn to define the decision, identify its owner, establish the deadline and determine what evidence and analysis are genuinely required.

Develop practical capability in microbiological and chemical risk assessment, dietary exposure assessment, risk ranking, risk-benefit assessment and scenario modelling.

Compare expected risk reduction, residual risk, feasibility, cost, food availability, sustainability, trade and potential unintended consequences.

Transform technical analysis into decision briefs, prioritization models, dashboards, interactive tools and clear recommendations.

Communicate what is known, what remains uncertain and how uncertainty should influence action without creating either false confidence or decision paralysis.

Define indicators, assess whether an intervention worked and use the results to improve future decisions and institutional processes.

Depending on partner needs, IFoRAC programs can include:

• Quantitative microbiological risk assessment
• Chemical and dietary exposure assessment
• Cumulative and combined-risk assessment
• Food consumption surveys and Total Diet Studies
• Risk ranking and priority setting
• Intervention and scenario modelling
• Risk-benefit and trade-off assessment
• Novel-food evidence evaluation
• Climate-sensitive food-safety risks
• Import risk management
• AI-assisted evidence mapping and data structuring
• Reproducible R, Python and Shiny workflows
• Dashboard and decision-tool development
• Codex-compatible risk-analysis governance
• Monitoring and public-health impact evaluation

Countries and institutions have different levels of data, expertise, infrastructure and resources. Food Decision Engineering should not be limited to highly digitalized systems.

Designed for organizations with limited data or fragmented workflows.

It can include:

• Decision mapping
• Structured expert judgement
• Codex standards and international evidence
• Basic risk profiles
• Data-light prioritization
• Simple decision briefs
• Explicit tracking of uncertainty and data gaps

Purpose: Make priority decisions more transparent and identify the most valuable next capacity investments.

Designed for organizations with moderate data and analytical capability.

It can include:

• Connected laboratory and surveillance data
• Food-consumption and occurrence data
• Dietary exposure assessment
• Risk-ranking models
• Scenario comparison
• Intervention assessment
• Interactive dashboards

Purpose: Improve prioritization, resource allocation and comparison of risk-management options.

Designed for organizations with strong data systems and established technical capability.

It can include:

• Probabilistic risk assessment
• Quantitative microbiological risk assessment
• Predictive modelling
• Whole-genome sequencing and traceability data
• AI-assisted analytical workflows
• Cost-effectiveness and trade-off models
• Adaptive monitoring and learning systems

Purpose: Build predictive, adaptive and continuously improving food decision systems.

Every organization can begin engineering better decisions with the data, institutions and capabilities it already has.

Assess existing skills, data, workflows, tools, responsibilities and institutional constraints.

Output: FDE capacity diagnosis

Identify the recurring decisions that matter most for public health, resilience, innovation, trade or trust.

Output: Priority decision portfolio

Define the knowledge, methods, tools, governance and partnerships needed to improve those decisions.

Output: Capacity-development roadmap

Develop skills by working on a real hazard, food pathway, intervention or policy decision.

Output: Practical decision product

Provide reusable workflows, documentation, mentoring and training for local teams and trainers.

Output: Transferred analytical and decision capability

Embed responsibilities, procedures, maintenance arrangements and indicators for monitoring progress.

Output: Institutionalization and evaluation plan

Focused sessions for senior leaders, risk managers and decision owners on the strategic use of evidence, uncertainty and Food Decision Engineering.

Hands-on programs in risk assessment, exposure analysis, risk ranking, modelling and decision-support methods.

Facilitated sessions in which multidisciplinary teams work through a real decision using available evidence and practical FDE methods.

Ongoing technical and strategic support while teams develop an assessment, decision brief, model or institutional workflow.

Programs that enable national, regional or institutional experts to deliver and adapt FDE learning locally.

Structured support for moving from current capabilities toward stronger, more connected and sustainable decision systems.

Networks that enable organizations and experts to exchange methods, tools, experiences and lessons across countries.

Whenever possible, IFoRAC uses a real decision challenge as the learning environment.

Participants may develop:

• A clearly framed decision question
• A decision portfolio map
• An evidence and data architecture
• A risk profile or risk assessment
• A priority hazard-food pathway map
• A risk-ranking model
• An intervention or scenario comparison
• A one-page decision brief
• A dashboard or interactive prototype
• An uncertainty communication product
• A monitoring and evaluation framework
• An institutional FDE roadmap

Participants should leave with more than new knowledge. They should leave with a product their organization can use.

IFoRAC can help partners evaluate capacity development at four levels:

Can participants apply the methods correctly and explain their limitations?

Can teams produce a credible assessment, decision brief, model or other decision product?

Are the new methods and tools incorporated into recurring workflows and responsibilities?

Did the strengthened capability improve prioritization, action, implementation or measurable outcomes?

This approach shifts evaluation away from attendance alone and toward demonstrated capability and institutional use.

Capacity development can be integrated into every Food Decision Mission:

Burden-to-Action: Burden interpretation, risk ranking, intervention selection and impact monitoring

Climate-Ready Food Safety: Foresight, scenario planning, early-warning indicators and adaptive surveillance

Safe Innovation Fast-Track: Problem formulation, evidence evaluation, uncertainty management and post-market monitoring

Balanced Food-System Decisions: Trade-off assessment, multi-criteria comparison and stakeholder communication

This model allows an organization to address an immediate priority while building the capability to manage similar decisions independently in the future.

IFoRAC designs capacity partnerships around local ownership, practical application and progressive transfer.

Our programs are:

• Scientifically rigorous
• Codex-compatible
• Adapted to available data and resources
• Transparent about uncertainty
• Focused on real decisions
• Designed for institutional use
• Supported by reusable tools and workflows
• Evaluated through practical results

No country or institution should be excluded from risk-informed decision-making because it does not yet have perfect data.