Comprehensive Food Health Risk Assessment Methodology Based on Fault Tree Analysis

In recent years, public concern regarding food safety has significantly increased due to the recurrent occurrence of food safety incidents. This paper introduces a comprehensive methodology for assessing food health risks using Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). Initially, FTA is employed to quantify the probability of contamination, thus determining the likelihood of risk occurrence. Subsequently, a diverse set of risk indicators is integrated, and a weighted assessment—incorporating both subjective and objective weighting schemes—is conducted to derive a comprehensive measure of risk severity. The risk matrix approach is then utilized to classify levels of risk likelihood and severity, effectively synthesizing contamination probability with environmental health risk to determine an overall risk value. The proposed framework is applied to evaluate cadmium contamination in rice samples collected in 2019 from the provinces of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi. The findings indicate that Jiangxi represents a high-risk area, Hunan a relatively high-risk area, and Hubei a comparatively lower-risk area.