A system and method for providing hazardous incident decision support and training includes a user interface component that receives situation definition data, a hazard assessment component and a decision aid. Decision support advice and decision prompts are presented by the system in response to the situation definition interface and hazard assessment. The hazard assessment and expert advice of the system are updated with elapsed time. In another embodiment of the present invention, graphical user interfaces are provided to display a set of menu entries wherein individual menu entries represent a hazardous incident characteristic. The user may select one or more of the menu entries to create a situation definition. Such definitions may be used, for example, to identify a hazardous agent based upon user-inputted signs and symptoms data.

The food safety system and method of the present invention provides a comprehensive consumer risk distribution model, which can be applied to any food item. Additionally, the present invention automatically evaluates consumer risk based on how much contaminated food is at each stage of the food distribution process according to the consumer risk distribution model, allowing for quick and accurate determinations as to the efficacy of a trace recall effort. A further element of the present invention provides expert analysis of data to detect and identify food events from sporadic information. Finally, the real time detection system provides early warning data in order to intercept isolated food contamination events before the contaminated food products reach the consuming public.