Food Safety: Strengthening the Present with an Eye to the Future

Abstract

The holistic concept of the "farm to fork" approach to food safety embraces all elements which may have an impact on the safety of food at every stage of the food chain. Applying this approach means that food safety is not solely a matter of end-product testing or inspection in primary production, the processing plant or in the market, but also emphasizes the need for interaction between all participants in the entire food chain, also taking into consideration all possible aspects that might have an impact on food safety, such as climate change, demographics and the economy. This approach requires interdisciplinary cooperation and the effective communication of all relevant information throughout the food chain. In this paper, holistic approaches for food safety and food security management, such as the "One Health" concept, bioeconomy and omics technologies, are discussed.