Author(s)

Francesca Ventura, Marco Vignudelli, Linda Pieri, Paola Rossi Pisa

Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.

The paper presents a Precaution Index (P) developed to create an instrument to assess the potential risk related to the presence of pollution sources next to milk production farms. The methodology starts from the inventory and geo-referencing of all pollution sources in an area, with the help of the multi-criteria decision analysis. Results are represented in a map of P, which highlights which areas are most at risk and need monitoring, and which pollutants may be involved. This may help in the early identification of emerging hazards to food safety. P was calculated for the milk production in an Italian region. Results show that 97% of the area is in a condition of minimum precaution that would be needed in controlling the safety of dairy products.

Environmental Pollution, Precaution Index, GIS, Multi-Criteria Analysis, Cow’s Milk, Emilia-Romagna Region

Ventura, F. , Vignudelli, M. , Pieri, L. and Pisa, P. (2014) Assessment of a Precaution Index for Environmental Evaluation: An Example of Application to the Cow’s Milk Production. Food and Nutrition Sciences, 5, 857-869. doi: 10.4236/fns.2014.510095.