The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CIFA) recently provided insight into how whole genome sequencing (WGS) and international data-sharing helped trace a 2020 multinational food safety outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes to enoki mushrooms, enabling countries to rapidly recall the affected products. 

A recent China–Australia collaborative review examined similarities and differences in the food safety risk assessment systems of China, Australia and New Zealand, Canada, and the U.S., with the aim of identifying areas that could support improvements to the Chinese system.

The West appears to exhibit heightened awareness about food safety, with many countries claiming that they maintain high standards during the production, distribution, storage, and sale of food, and that they have mandatory legal requirements to protect people. However, there is less understanding of what makes human diets sustainable in a way that ensures global food security and sustainability.

As our agri-food systems transform in response to the changing global context, food safety must keep pace to safeguard consumer health and ensure international trade. By providing avenues to explore how the future may unfold, foresight enables strategic preparedness in food safety to address vulnerabilities and ensure resilience.

Advances in information technology, rapid advances in diagnostic sensitivity, and shifting regulatory requirements are changing the nature of food safety, while macroeconomic trends like globalization, competitive consolidation, and maturation of the industry are altering the structure of the markets. These trends are colliding with shorter-term disruptions like the economic recovery from COVID-19, inflation, and the war in Ukraine, making the near-term future difficult to see.

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) commissioned an independent review of the national food control systems of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S., which has revealed significant differences in how each country regulates food safety.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is encouraging countries around the world to adopt e-notification systems to bolster food safety, and has released a publication to support such efforts, titled, Technical Guidance for the Implementation of E-Notification Systems for Food Control.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we interview Dr. Markus Lipp, Senior Food Safety Officer at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), about FAO’s work in food safety amid a multitude of intersecting challenges and factors such as climate change, food security, the cultural importance of food, and countries’ economic and geographic differences.

The EU experienced more food safety notifications through its online Rapid Alert System for Food and Food Network in 2021 than in years prior, with pesticides, food contact materials, and fraud highlighted in a Administrative Assistance and Cooperative Network report.

The Caribbean Public Health Agency will conduct an assessment in participating Caribbean countries to assess the impacts of unsafe food in the region, as well as to understand the Caribbean’s capacity to respond to and develop climate change-resilient food safety plans.