From intervention priority to microbiological risk: interpreting Fuzzy-FMEA in household food safety

Zhang et al. proposed an innovative Fuzzy Failure Mode and Effect Analysis framework to prioritize household food-handling practices in China by integrating national survey data with structured expert elicitation. Although this approach offers a pragmatic basis for targeting food-safety interventions, the interpretation of the resulting fuzzy risk priority numbers warrants caution. Occurrence estimates were derived from behavioral items with heterogeneous and sometimes conditional denominators, limiting direct comparability across failure modes. In addition, redefining detection as consumer risk awareness introduces a construct that may be related to occurrence, creating potential overlap between model dimensions. We therefore suggest interpreting the rankings primarily as priorities for behavioral intervention and risk communication rather than as direct estimates of microbiological disease risk. Integrating behavioral frequency with pathogen-specific exposure data and quantitative microbiological risk assessment could further strengthen future prioritization frameworks.