Establishment of the Standard System for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Emergency Response to Food Safety Emergencies: A Delphi Consensus Study

Objective: To get the standard system for evaluating the effectiveness of emergency response to food safety emergencies and the index for evaluating the response to food safety emergencies. Method: Each specific index content of the evaluation system was determined with the Delphi method. The interquartile distance and Kendall's consistency coefficient were applied as the statistical quantities for judging the consistency of experts’ opinions. The importance ratings of the indicators by experts were calculated to confirm the weights of each indicator, and the formula for calculating the food safety emergency response evaluation index was derived. Result: Consensus was obtained, if the IQR was less than 1 and Kendall’ W was larger than 0.3 (statistical significance was set at P<0.05). 8 primary indicators (1.Emergency preparedness, 2.Monitoring and early warning, 3.Report and announcement, et al.), 21 secondary indicators (11.Establishment of emergency plan, 12.Establishment of emergency response mechanism, 13.Implementation of emergency drills, et al.) and 49 tertiary indicators (111.The corresponding level of government and related departments to develop and revise emergency plans, 112.The relevant departments involved in the accident for the occurrence of whether to develop emergency plans, 121.Emergency command structure settings, et al.) were identified after three rounds of discussions. The evaluation system model, including the weights of each indicator, was established based on the statistics on the importance ratings. Conclusion: The specific contents and weights of the food safety emergency response evaluation criteria system were determined, and the quantitative index was obtained in this study. The emergency response work of food safety emergencies could be evaluated better.