BIKE: Dietary Exposure Model for Foodborne Microbiological and Chemical Hazards

Abstract

BIKE is a Bayesian dietary exposure assessment model for microbiological and chemical hazards. A graphical user interface was developed for running the model and inspecting the results. It is based on connected Bayesian hierarchical models, utilizing OpenBUGS and R in tandem. According to occurrence and consumption data given as inputs, a specific BUGS code is automatically written for running the Bayesian model in the background. The user interface is based on shiny app. Chronic and acute exposures are estimated for chemical and microbiological hazards, respectively. Uncertainty and variability in exposures are visualized, and a few optional model structures can be used. Simulated synthetic data are provided with BIKE for an example, resembling real occurrence and consumption data. BIKE is open source and available from github.