Defining the objective is necessary to make sure that you focus on the relevant issues. The objective should also be specified in the risk assessment report, so that it is transparent for readers whether the objective was achieved.
Sometimes the objective seems evident as it boils down to judging the acceptability of a consumer product risk. In other cases, the objective may need to be more specified as the focus can for example be on the risk for vulnerable groups, consumers in general or the hazardous product characteristic in general.
As stated in the basic principles (see point 5), an organisation that wants to perform risk assessments needs to prepare itself by establishing a system for collecting relevant data of good quality. This system should not only be useful in the risk assessment itself, but also for picking up any signals that may call for a risk assessment.
The result of this phase is a clear description of the objective of the risk assessment in which the reason, final purpose and scope are clarified.
