Megatrends and emerging issues: Impacts on food safety

Abstract

The world is changing at a pace, driven by global megatrends and their interactions. Megatrends, including climate change, the drive for sustainability, an aging population, urbanization, and geopolitical tensions, are producing an increasingly challenging environment for the provision of a safe and secure food supply. To ensure a robust, safe, and secure food supply for all, potential food safety impacts associated with these megatrends need to be understood, and mitigation and management plans must be implemented. This paper outlines the relevant megatrends, discusses their potential impact on food safety, and suggests steps to help ensure the production of safe food in the future. Megatrends are increasingly driving resource depletion, reducing the vitality of plants and animals, increasing the geographical spread of animal and plant pathogens, increasing the risk of mycotoxins, agrichemical residues, and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens contaminating foods, and threatening to destabilize food systems and the food regulatory network. Science-based actions, adopting continual and dynamic risk assessments, alongside the use of more sensitive and accurate methods for the detection of contaminants, may counter these challenges. The use of artificial intelligence, robotics and automation, the enhancement of food safety cultures, the continued education and training of workforces, and the implementation of risk-based food regulations will help ensure preventative controls are in place. As low-income countries and smallholder farmers are more likely to be exposed to the impact of these megatrends and less likely to have resources to counter them, geographical social inequality, unrest, and population migration are likely to be exacerbated unless urgent action is taken.