Food Security: Microbiological and Chemical Risks

Food Security within a health security context relates to systems dealing with the prevention and control of not only acute but also sporadic and chronic foodborne diseases. The description of food security and safety systems in this chapter will hence include oversight of both microbiological and chemical hazards, which both can cause acute as well as chronic disease events. The Chapter includes a description of existing national and international surveillance systems for foodborne diseases and regulatory systems enabling risk mitigation action for both chemical and microbiological hazards, with specific inclusion of the concerning increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of foodborne microorganisms also related to the animal production systems. The Chapter also includes descriptions of methodology for the quantitative assessment of sustainability of food production systems.