Climate Change, Foodborne Pathogens, and Illness in Higher Income Countries

Purpose of review: We present a review of the likely consequences of climate change for foodborne pathogens and associated human illness in higher income countries. Recent findings: The relationships between climate and food are complex and hence the impacts of climate change uncertain. This makes it difficult to know which foodborne pathogens will be most affected, what the specific effects will be, and on what timescales changes might occur. Hence, a focus upon current capacity and adaptation potential against foodborne pathogens is essential. We highlight a number of developments that may enhance preparedness for climate change. These include: • Adoption of novel surveillance methods, such as syndromic methods, to speed up detection and increase the fidelity of intervention in foodborne outbreaks • Genotype based approaches to surveillance of food pathogens to enhance spatio-temporal resolution in tracing and tracking of illness • Ever increasing integration of plant, animal and human surveillance systems, one-health, to maximize potential for identifying threats • Increased commitment to cross-border (global) information initiatives (including big data) • Improved clarity regarding the governance of complex societal issues such as the conflict between food safety and food waste • Strong user centric (social) communications strategies to engage diverse stakeholder groups Summary: The impact of climate change upon foodborne pathogens and associated illness is uncertain. This emphasises the need to enhance current capacity and adaptation potential against foodborne illness. A range of developments are explored in this paper to enhance preparedness

Aquatic food security:insights into challenges and solutions from an analysis of interactions between fisheries, aquaculture, food safety, human health, fish and human welfare, economy and environment

Fisheries and aquaculture production, imports, exports and equitability of distribution determine the supply of aquatic food to people. Aquatic food security is achieved when a food supply is sufficient, safe, sustainable, shockproof and sound: sufficient, to meet needs and preferences of people; safe, to provide nutritional benefit while posing minimal health risks; sustainable, to provide food now and for future generations; shock-proof, to provide resilience to shocks in production systems and supply chains; and sound, to meet legal and ethical standards for welfare of animals, people and environment. Here, we present an integrated assessment of these elements of the aquatic food system in the United Kingdom, a system linked to dynamic global networks of producers, processors and markets. Our assessment addresses sufficiency of supply from aquaculture, fisheries and trade; safety of supply given biological, chemical and radiation hazards; social, economic and environmental sustainability of production systems and supply chains; system resilience to social, economic and environmental shocks; welfare of fish, people and environment; and the authenticity of food. Conventionally, these aspects of the food system are not assessed collectively, so information supporting our assessment is widely dispersed. Our assessment reveals trade-offs and challenges in the food system that are easily overlooked in sectoral analyses of fisheries, aquaculture, health, medicine, human and fish welfare, safety and environment. We highlight potential benefits of an integrated, systematic and ongoing process to assess security of the aquatic food system and to predict impacts of social, economic and environmental change on food supply and demand

UK dietary exposure to PCDD/Fs, PCBs, PBDD/Fs, PBBs and PBDEs: comparison of results from 24-h duplicate diets and total diet studies

<p>Chemicals in food are monitored to check for compliance with regulatory limits and to evaluate trends in dietary exposures, among other reasons. This study compared two different methods for estimating human dietary exposure to lipophilic persistent organic pollutants (POPs) during 2011/12: (1) the 2012 Total Diet Study (TDS) conducted by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) and (2) a 24-h duplicate diet (DD) study of 20 adults from the North East of England. The equivalence of the two approaches was assessed; anything less than an order of magnitude could be considered reasonable and within three-fold (equivalent to 0.5 log) as good. Adult dietary exposure estimates derived from the DD study for both average and high-level (97.5th percentile) consumers compared well with those from the TDS. Estimates from the DD study when compared with those from the TDS were within 10% for P97.5 for total PCDD/F/PCB with divergence increasing to a factor of 3.4 for average BDE-209. Most estimates derived from the TDS were slightly higher than those derived from the DD. Comparison with earlier UK TDS data over the last 30 years or so confirmed a gradual decline in levels of PCDD/F/PCBs in food. Such comparisons also indicated peaks in dietary exposure to ∑PBDE (excluding BDE-209) between 2000 and 2005. Exposure estimates for all measured compounds using both TDS and DD data were found to be within recommended tolerable daily intakes where available or within acceptable margins of exposure.</p