Ensuring food safety for food security

Abstract

Security challenges within anthropology must include food security as a key aspect since it is the basis of another series of anthropological challenges. Ensuring food safety for food security is an increasingly complex task due to its size and complexity. Although technological advances are solving the problems that are generated, the threats arise as new situations determined by social, demographic, ecological and natural resource changes, which in the face of a growing population do not always allow an evaluation with sufficient anticipation. This challenge to achieve global food security presents aspects to be assessed, such as global social trends in food consumption (mega-cities and mega-regions; increasing population aging and personalized foods and diets; global food production, food security and climate change; internet of food (IoF) and digital food), current and emerging risks in food safety (biological risks: from bacteria to viruses and antimicrobial resistance; chemical contamination: unintentional and intentional: allergens and intolerances; new technologies and food safety), and advances in technology and food safety (the role of food companies in ensuring food safety: packaging and traceability; risk assessment tools such as predictive microbiology for hazard estimation, and evaluation chemical risk and safety assessments, omics and big data ”; transparency and sustainability in communication and public perception of food safety). This complexity and determining factors must be constantly reviewed for global food security.